NIGHT AND DAY HUNTERS 197 



Range — Temperate North America, from Atlantic to 

 Pacific, rarely so far north as British Columbia; south- 

 ward to Patagonia and Falkland Islands. Casual in 

 New England. 



Season — ^Permanent resident, except at extreme northern 

 limit of range. 



Floating high in air, with never a perceptible movement 

 of its widespread wings, as it circles with majestic, unim- 

 passioned grace in a great spiral, this common buzzard of 

 our Southern states suggests by its flight the very poetry of 

 motion, while its terrestrial habits of scavenger are surely 

 the very prose of existence. In the air the bird is unsur- 

 passed for grace, as, rising with the wind, with only the 

 slightest motion of its great, flexible, upturned wings, it 

 sails around and around, for hours at a time, at a height o£ 

 two or three hundred feet; then volplaning in a long sweep, 

 rises again with the same calm, effortless soaring that often 

 carries it beyond our sight through the thin, summer 

 clouds. Usually one may see a dozen great birds amusing 

 themselves by wheeling through space in pursuit of pleas- 

 ure, and abandoning themselves to the amusement with 

 tireless ecstasy. Is it not probable that so much exercise 

 is taken to help digest the enormous amount of carrion 

 bolted.? 



Other birds have utilitarian motives for keeping in the 

 air; several of the hawks, for example, do indeed saU about 

 in a similar graceful spiral flight, notably the red-tailed 

 species, but a sudden swoop or dive proves that its slow 

 gyrations were made with an eye directly fastened on a 

 dinner. The crow soars to fight the hawk; the kingbird 

 dashes upward to pursue the crow that carries off its young; 



