C II. Min-rlton — Binfn of Conncrflcut. 91 



III lt;:>4, NN'illiaiii Wood wroir: '''I'lic Kaglcs oft lie (Minit ifv lie of 

 two sorts, OIK" like the Eagles lliat l>e in I''n(/l<f.n<l^ I lie dtlici- is aortic 

 tliinj; bigger, witli a great white liead and wliilc tavie: liiese lice 

 coiimionly called Ciri[)es; these prey ii|k)ii Diickes and (ieese, and 

 such Fish as are cast upon the Sea-shore. And altliout,fli an Ka^le !..• 

 counted King of that feathered regiment, yet is there a certaine Idacke 

 Ilawke that beates him; so that he is constrayned to soai-e so lii.^h, 

 till heate expell his adversary."* 



Family, CATHARTID^. 



170. Cathartes aura (lamu'') lUi^er. Turkey Buzzard. 



A rare visitor from the South, at present, although once "not un- 

 common "f according to Linsley, who fuither states: "I have known 

 it in Connecticut from a child, having at that period counted twenty in 

 a flock in Northford in the month of August." "At the South, where 

 they abound, it is seldom one attacks domestic ])oultry ; but many 

 years since I saw in Northford, in this State, a splendid male Turkey 

 Buzzard pounce down upon a chicken about three-<piarters grown, 

 and within about three rods of where I was staiiding with two other 

 persons. As he turned his eye upon us, still standing upon the 

 chicken, he appeared so much alarmed as to be unal)le to rise; we all 

 ran upon him, aud when ^dthin a few feet of him he rose, just clear- 

 ing our heads, and dropping the chicken at our feet, he hurried oft'."J 

 This fact is particularly interesting, since they are commonly believed 

 to feed exclusively on carrion. Nuttall heard that they were " ac- 

 cused, at times, of attacking young pigs and lambs, beginning their 

 assault by ]ncking out the eyes." But that he did not believe it is 

 evident, for he goes on to say: " Mr. Waterton, however, Avhile at 

 Demerara, watched them for hours together amidst reptiles of all 

 descriptions, but they never made any attack upon them. He e\en 

 killed lizards and frogs and put them in their way, but they did n(.t 

 appear to notice them till tlu'y had attained the juitrid scent. So 

 that a more harmless animal, living at all upon flesh, is not in exist- 

 ence, than the Turkey Vulture."§ Nevertheless, since our own mod- 



* New England's Prospect, p. 30, 1 634. 



f Regarding its former abundance, Mr. J. N. Clark writes me that an old liunter 

 told him " tliat thej' used to be very common " about the moutli of the Connecticut, 

 where "he had shot a good many, but not recently." 



X Am. Jour. Sci. and Arts, vol. xliv, No. 2, p. '250, April, 1843. 



g Nuttall's Manual of Oniitholooy, p. 15, ls3-2. 



