162 LIFE HISTORIES OP NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



the month of June, ou the banks of the Saskatchewan, in latitude 55°, which 

 probably marks the most northern point of their breeding range. 



The Turkey Vulture is a well known resident throughout the Middle 

 and Southern States, as well as on the Pacific coast. I have seen these 

 birds everywhere in Arizona, California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, and 

 Idaho. Let an animal be killed accidentally, or die on the march, and you 

 will not have long to wait before some of the Vultures are about. 



They look their best aloft, as their flight is exceedingly easy and 

 graceful; while the apparent absence of all effort as they sail in stately 

 inanner overhead, in ever changing circles, and without any apparent move- 

 ment of their well shaped wings, makes them really attractive objects to 

 watch; but let them once descend to the ground or alight on a tree, and their 

 attactiveness ceases; now they are anything but prepossessing, and it requires 

 no effort to place them where they properly belong, among the "scavengers 

 of the soil." 



Dr. William L. Ralph writes me: "In Florida they are abundant and 

 appear to decrease but little in numbers. When not molested they become 

 very tame, and in many of the Southern cities and villages they can be seen 

 walking around the streets or roosting ou the house tops with as little concern 

 as domestic animals. 



"Although they eat carrion, these birds prefer fresh meat, and the reason 

 of their eating it when decayed is that they cannot kill game themselves and 

 their bills are not strong enough to tear the tough skin of many animals until 

 it becomes soft from decomposition. I have often had Ducks a nd other game, 

 which I had hung in trees to keep from carnivorous animals, eaten by them. 

 When they find a dead animal they will not leave it until all, but the bones and 

 other hard parts, has been consumed, and if it be a large one, or if it have a 

 tough skin, they will often remain near it for days, roosting by night in the 

 trees near by. After they have eaten — and sometimes they will gorge them- 

 selves until the food will run out of their mouths when they move — they will, 

 if they are not too full to fly, roost in the nearest trees until their meal is partly 

 digested, and then commence eating again. 



"Many times I have seen these birds in company with the Black Vultiu'e 

 floating down a stream on a dead alligator, cow, or other large animal, crowded 

 so closely together that they could hardly keep their balance, and followed by 

 a number on the wing. I never have seen them fight very much when feed- 

 ing, but they will scold and peck at one another, and sometimes two birds will 

 get hold of the same piece of meat and pull against each other until it breaks 

 or until the weaker one has to give it up." 



A specimen shot by me on September 22, 1872, at vaj camp on the 

 Rillitto Creek, near Tucson, Arizona, was so completely gorged with small 

 minnows, each about 1^ inches long, that they filled its mouth. How and 

 where it got these fish has always been a puzzle to me; they were not decayed, 

 and must have bee« caught alive, or found very shortly after death. I noticed 



