

A Glimpse into tlie Life History of the Turkey Vulture 



By R. W. WILLIAMS, Jr., Tallahassee, Fla. 



With a photograph by the author , 



THE rusty, prosaic, semi-domestic Turkey Vulture has been the theme 

 of many scientific and popular articles in years gone by, and, let us 

 hope, will continue to be in the years to come, so long as there remains 

 anything to be added to an exhaustive history of its life. I recall how, some 

 years ago, ornithological sages engaged in a spirited disputation as to whether 

 the Vulture is guided to its accustomed food by the sense of smell or the sense 

 of sight. So far as I am informed, a solution of the problem is still in abeyance, 

 or, at all events, is not settled to the satisfaction of every one who has given 

 the matter thought. It is not my purpose here to enter upon any philosophical 

 disquisition about the bird. I merely wish to submit to the readers of Bird 

 Lore a snapshot photograph, 

 with a few remarks pertinent 

 thereto, of the Turkey Vulture, . ,^ *. 

 as he may be seen, any day 

 during the winter, at my home 

 in Tallahassee, Florida. The 

 accompanying picture illus- 

 trates the bird at rest and 

 ease on the roof of our house, 

 and was taken from our back 

 yard during the first week in 

 December last. When I hur- 

 ried into the house for the 

 kodak, there were sixteen of 

 the birds resting and sunning 

 themselves on the roof. By 

 the time I was able to return 

 and properly focus the kodak, 

 seven of them had taken wing. 

 Two of the remaining nine will 

 be seen on the chimney, out 

 of which there is issuing a substantial volume of smoke from the fire down 

 in the sitting-room. It is a common practice of these birds to thus warm 

 themselves on cold or damp days by heat that rises from the fires in our home; 

 and one often finds them sitting on the apex of the roof, with wings outstretched 

 to the sun, for the purpose, it is possible, as some one has cruelly suggested, 

 of ridding themselves of the unpleasant odors which must inevitably, to some 

 degree, be communicated to their plumage by the food they customarily eat 

 and the manner in which they^sometimes eat it. I am, however, inclined to 



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TURKEY VULTURES ON HOUSE-TOP 



