46 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF ALABAMA 



61. CATHARTES AURA SEPTENTRIONALIS (Wied). 

 TURKEY VULTURE. 

 "Turkey Buzzard" 



"Common. Resident. Breeds. It is generally not be- 

 lieved that this vulture has the sense of smell acute, but 

 from actual observation I think it must be guided by 

 smell as well as by sight in finding its prey. During the 

 summer past in July a small chicken, about the size of a 

 Bob White, died, and was thrown out of the yard under 

 some pines so dense that no eye could detect so small an 

 ^object from above. About four days after this chicken 

 had laid there a turkey vulture perched upon a fence near 

 foy and extended his neck in different directions, as if 

 "feeling for the scent;" ascertaining the course of the 

 odor, he flew toward the spot, lighted, passed some yards 

 beyond the dead chicken, as a dog that seeks his prey by 

 his olfactories, and then discovering his mistake, he turn- 

 ed and went directly to the object of his search. Mr. C. 

 S, Brimley, this summer, removed the anal glands of a 

 little striped skunk, and threw them about a hundred 

 yards from my door. Several days after this tidbit was 

 exposed, the piercing sight or the keen scent of a turkey 

 vulture discovered its location and the vulture perched 

 or the fence above it; a few minutes afterward he was 

 joined by two others of his species. There they remained 

 for some moments, till one of the number flew down and 

 8 TT allowed the coveted morsel. It seemed to me that the 

 sense of smell guided these vultures in this instance ; and 

 no one, who observes them closely, can escape the conclu- 

 sion that turkey vultures depend much upon the sense of 

 smell to find their prey." (189Cd). 



62. CATHARISTA URUBU (Vieillot). 

 BLACK VULTURE. 

 "Carrion Crow." 



"Common. Resident. Breeds." (1890d). 



"Saw black vulture feeding her young by regurgitation, 

 as a pigeon." (Original notes. Sept. 1, 1890). 



"Found nest of black vulture in a hollow of a tulip 

 tree (Lyriodendron tulipifera). The two eggs lay on 



