180 BIRDS 



TURKEY VULTURE 



The Turkey Vulture ranges throughout temperate 

 North America, as far north as southern Minnesota and 

 New York, wintering in the Southern States. 



Vultures, like our gulls, are scavengers, but the former 

 subsist chiefly on carrion and rarely attack living creatures. 

 The nostrils are highly developed and the sense of smell is 

 extremely keen, while the sense of sight is even more highly 

 developed. 



Vultures have the head and neck bare of feathers, and 

 they are really repulsive-looking at near sight, though dis- 

 tant flight is graceful. Our American vultures are capable 

 of prolonged flight without any apparent movement of the 

 wings. This seems like a violation of the laws of gravity, 

 but in their majestic soaring I have watched them ascending 

 or descending, while moving in great circles, without once 

 flapping the wings. The birds are much more numerous in 

 the South from Florida and South Carolina west to New 

 Mexico. 



They are protected in all the Southern States, and it is 

 not an unusual sight to see small groups of both turkey and 

 black vultures feeding in the public streets, where they 

 exhibit no more fear than our domesticated pigeons. Dr. 

 George F. Gaumer, of Central America, informs us that 

 the killing in immense numbers of certain herons, gulls, and 

 other scavengers has resulted in an increase of human mor- 

 tality among the inhabitants of the coast. This tends to 

 show how certain birds assist in keeping the beaches and 

 public highways free from decaying animal matter. 



