106 THE OOLOGIST 
A Buzzard’s Sense of Smell. 
While paddling around Kale Kilby 
near the town of Suffork, Virginia, on 
the 31st of May last year, my compan- 
ion, Mr. J. H. Gould of Norfolk, and 
I noticed on a dead stump ahead of 
us, a Turkey Buzzard (Cathartes aura) 
Drawing nearer, he seemed loath to 
move. and kept leaning over and peer- 
ing into a hole about eight inches be- 
low him. We became inquisitive also 
and on pushing over the dead stump, 
and breaking open the hole, found 
two dead Yellow-shafted Flickers 
(Colaptes auratus). These birds were 
only partly decomposed and now that 
Buzzard: at the height he generally 
sails, could detect them, still remains 
a mystery to me. 
H, H. BAILEY. 
—~2~<>-2 
Additional Notes on the Breeding of 
Catharista urubu. 
On April 38rd, this year, I was out 
in a large Cypress Swamp in Florida 
collecting Black Vulture and Water 
Turkey sets and taking photos of eggs 
and young in situ of these species and 
also the Wards Heron. 
I was up about ninety feet in a cy- 
press engaged in the interesting opera- 
tion of taking the picture of two young 
Wardi about a month old I should 
judge, as usual with this bird one of 
the youngsters was a great deal larger 
than the other and the largest one 
seemed greatly worrried at my being 
so near him, he had vomited up a 
piece of a mocasin snake about four- 
teen inches long when I first appeared 
at the nest and I guess he was afraid 
that I had designs on his breakfast 
because every half minute or so he 
would stretch out his long neck and 
pick up one end of this -delicate mor- 
sel and make as if to swallow it, but 
he would always change his mind. I 
waited fully half an hour in hopes he 
would so that I could get a picture of 
the operation. During this wait I 
looked about over the swamp to see 
what was “doing” and happened to see 
an old Black Vulture up in a Wardi 
nest of last year from which I had 
collected a set. I thought at first the 
Buzzard was making a breakfast from 
some of the remains of the young 
Herons. Climbing up higher however 
in the tree I was in I made out tho 
that Mrs, Buzzard was evidently cov- 
ering eggs. I had a free and unob- 
structed view of her from where I was 
and being only about twenty yards 
away could see fine. She was sitting 
broadside to me and had her head 
tucked around to the off side so that 
I could not at first see it and acted as 
if she were hiding from me. I have 
never noted this act in this species be- 
fore as when you approach an inecubat- 
ing bird she is always nervous, etc. I 
clapped my hands, and made all kinds 
of noises but could not wake her up 
so I called to my companion on the 
ground to go to the tree and rap on 
it, upon his doing this she woke up 
and flew off at once and displayed two 
of the nicest eggs of this species that 
I have ever seen. Needless to say 
that I came down from the tree I was 
in and collected this set. They are 
shorter and rounder than any other 
sets of these I have and heavily mar- 
ked and very handsome. In all my 
observations of this bird this is the 
first time I have ever found her breed- 
ing so high up, possibly this swamp 
had every available hollow log in use 
by her friends and she was compelled 
to go high. This nest was 85 feet up 
in a cypress. 
O, HE, BAYNARD, 
