THE TURKEY BUZZARD. 251 



Ten fly by mere chance to the wood where the mule lies, and 

 manage to spy it out through the trees ; the rest go quite in a differ- 

 ent direction. How are the last-mentioned birds to find the mule ? 

 Every minute carries them farther from it. Now reverse the state- 

 ment; and, instead of a mule newly dead, let us suppose a mule in 

 an offensive state of decomposition. I would stake my life upon it, 

 that not only the fifty vultures would be at the carcass next morning, 

 but also that every vulture in the adjacent forest would manage to 

 get there in time to partake of the repast. 



Here I will stop, fearing that I have already drawn too largely 

 on the reader's patience ; but really I could not bear to see the vul- 

 ture deprived of the most interesting feature in its physiognomy with 

 impunity. These are notable times for ornithology : one author 

 gravely tells us that the water-ousel walks on the bottom of streams ; 

 another describes an eagle as lubricating its plumage from an oil- 

 gland ; a third renews in print the absurdity that the rook loses the 

 feathers at the base of the bill by seeking in the earth for its food ; 

 while a fourth, lamenting that the old name, Caprimulgus, serves to 

 propagate an absurd vulgar error, gives to the bird the new name of 



" In nova fert animus." 



THE MEANS BY WHICH THE TURKEY 

 BUZZARD TRACES ITS FOOD. 



IN answer to the remark of Mr Percival Hunter in the Magazine of 

 Natural History, vol. iv. p. 83, that my account of the habits of the 

 Vultur aura is at variance with the observations of Wilson, Hum- 

 boldt, and Azara, I beg to inform him, that I pronounced the Vuliur 

 aura of Guiana to be not gregarious, after the closest attention to its 

 habits for a long series of years ; and I am still of decided opinion 

 that this bird ought not to be considered gregarious. 



Wilson was never in Guiana. As for Humboldt, I cannot think of 

 submitting to his testimony, in matters of ornithology, for one single 



