178 TEXAS NATURE OBSERVATIONS AND REMINISCENCES. 



any other country that ever pro- 

 tected an animal more stringently 

 than the Texas buzzard, and to 

 see them at once slaughtered by 

 the wholesale would indeed be a 

 novelty and a sign of the great 

 strife of modern f cientific research 

 in the interest of animal and human 

 health. 



From a general point of view and 

 some of my own observations, it 

 would seem that our buzzard 

 should not be exterminated for 

 these reasons: It is not proven, at 

 least not so far as the writer is in- 

 formed, that such diseases as black 

 leg, hog cholera, charbon, etc., 

 are contracted solely or mostly 

 through the dejecta of buzzards. 

 We professionals know, and the 

 laiety as well, that all stock ani- 

 mals are very sensitive and parti- 

 cular in their feed and while feed- 

 ing. Then, alsp, it must be proven 

 that the dejecta of buzzards har- 

 bor such pathogenic bacteria or 

 micro-organisms as actually pro- 

 duce the above named diseases. 

 Hogs, for instance also, like the 

 buzzards, feed on carcasses, per- 

 haps also on such which were in 

 lifetime affected with communi- 

 cable diseases. These then could 

 be distributers of diseases also. 

 Fowl also, if' affected with some 

 epidemic disease, if devoured after 

 death by hogs, or if left to decay, 

 by polluting some stream, could 

 communicate disease to cattle. 



And the fact is, at least seeming- 

 ly so, and substantiated by obser- 

 vation, that carcasses of animals, 

 whether they came to death natur- 

 ally, or through disease, if located 

 near a creek, bank, or water used 

 by cattle, the decaying material, 

 after any rain, is likely to be washed 

 into the nearest pool of water, es- 

 pecially if such dead animal is lo- 

 cated directly on or very close to 

 any stream or pool of water from 

 which cattle, etc., are compelled to 

 drink. And another thing; it is 

 claimed by some observers and 

 writers that the buzzard carries off 

 decayed flesh and spreads it over a 



large surrounding surface. I must 

 say, as far as my own observations 

 at butcher pens and farms is con- 

 cerned, that I cannot relate one 

 instance where this has been done, 

 at least that buzzards carry the 

 flesh to any great distance. These 

 black vultures generally congre- 

 gate in large numbers around a 

 carcass and finish then and there 

 their meal without carrying any 

 away. This though, I believe, 

 is done by the so-called Mexican 

 eagle or buzzard, or some species 

 of hawks. Hogs, and es- 

 pecially wolves and wildcats carry 

 parts of a carcass away, and mil- 

 lions of flies feed on decaying ani- 

 mals and are liable to transport 

 and inoculate pathogenic germs. 



Nature has most wisely and 

 nearly exclusively endowed the 

 buzzard, these scavengers of the 

 prairie and grand sailors of the 

 eternal ether of the blue skies of 

 Western Texas, with a great pur- 

 pose viz., the destruction of 

 carcasses by eating the decaying 

 flesh which would otherwise rot 

 in the atmosphere and undergo a 

 process of slow decay. Science, 

 though, will have to prove if such 

 devoured food, after undergoing 

 the process of digestion, contains 

 in the converted dejecta any patho- 

 genic bacteria causing such dis- 

 eases as mentioned. Or, whether, 

 as also indicated above, there 

 are other and perhaps more potent 

 sources of disease propagators in 

 cattle than the buzzard. The pro- 

 per authority, of course to decide 

 this matter would be the govern- 

 ment. Before, therefore, any such 

 stringent laws could be enacted 

 to exterminate these animals, more 

 exact observations should- be made 

 by competent scientific researches. 



In conclusion, in reviewing the 

 above rather unpleasant matter 

 to discuss, but nevertheless of 

 vital importance, the remedy would 

 be plainly this: If it be proven 

 definitely that the buzzard is a 

 nuisance — a direct or indirect pro- 

 pagator of epidemic or other dis- 



