THE TURKEY BUZZARD. 33 



us is large and open. While coursing round this 

 field, the vulture, suddenly rounding and falling, 

 killed a garter snake, scarcely as large as a man's 

 finger. The author tells us, he plainly saw that the 

 vulture could see this snake hundreds of yards 

 distant. I am not surprised that the vulture saw 

 the snake hundreds of yards distant, as I am fully 

 aware of the keen sight of all birds; but what really 

 astonishes me is, that the author could see the 

 snake, and know it to be a garter snake ; for, upon 

 the face of the statement, I am led to conclude that 

 he himself, as well as the vulture, was hundreds of 

 yards distant from the snake. It were much to be 

 wished that the author had said something positive 

 with regard to the actual distance of the snake 

 from the tree under which he had taken his stand. 

 Again, the author tells us, in the beginning of this 

 experiment, that he retired about a few hundred 

 yards from the spot where he had placed the deer- 

 skin, in the middle of the large open field ; and that 

 a vulture, in the lapse of some minutes, alighted 

 within a few yards of the skin. The author ran 

 immediately, covered by a large tree, till within 

 about forty yards of the skin. Now, quickness of 

 sight in the vulture being the very essence of our 

 author's paper in Jameson's Journal, I am at a loss 

 to conceive how our author contrived to run over 

 the few hundred yards unseen by the vulture. To 

 be sure, a large tree intervened ; but then the 

 vulture happened to be about forty yards on the 

 other side of it ; and this distance of the vulture 

 from the tree would be all in its favour for descry- 



