AVES -TURKEY BUZZARD. 423 
justly remarks, implies neither respect nor consideration; but is the natura 
effect of its superiority in size and strength. 
Like the other vultures, these birds perform a most important office in the 
economy of nature, by the removing of dead, and putrefying carrion. Their 
sight is wide and piercing, their sense of smell highly developed, and their 
strength of wing sufficient to enable them to reach an extremely high pitch, 
and to continue their flight for hours together. They endure the pangs of 
hunger with extraordinary patience ; and never attack the smallest bird or 
the most feeble quadruped while it has life. In walking, their gait is slow 
and heavy, and their body is maintained ina horizontal position. When 
about to mount into the air, they are compelled to take several leaps before 
they can accomplisn their purpose, and quit the ground with some little 
difficulty. The odor of their flesh is precisely the same with that of the 
carrion on which they feed, and even the skins retain it for many years. 
Contrary to the habits of their family in general, they perch on the tallest 
trees, living solitary or in pairs, building their nests, as it is said, in the 
hollows of the trunks, and laying only two eggs. They are little inclined 
to become familiar with man, but on the contrary avoid his habitations, and 
betake themselves every where to the interior and unfrequented parts of the 
country. In a deficiency of carrion they feed upon snakes and lizards, and 
during the summer subsist, in a great measure, upon the putrid fish of the 
lakes that are dried up by the parching heat of the sun. 
LiL G:, AVL R PCAN. CAR RLON VUE TaeR bh. OF 
TURKEY BUZZARD,! 



{s found in vast flocks in parts of America, where it 1s of great utility im 
destroying snakes and vermin, and in devouring dead and putrid carcasses 

1 Cathartes Aura, Lin. 
