120 



numerous enough in the thickly settled communities to be noticed. The 

 Goshawk is a more northern species whose distribution overlaps the edges 

 of settlement on the north. What can be regarded as a just balance between 

 good and evil is difficult to decide; the loss of a chicken is definite, easily 

 estimated in value; the absence of the mice and insects taken by a predace- 

 ous bird is a vague benefit that is difficult of realization or appreciation. 



SUBORDER— SARCORHAMPHI. AMERICAN VULTURES. 



This suborder is composed of the American Vultures which are 

 systematically quite distinct from those of the Old World. One family 

 only is represented in Canada, Cathartidce the Turkey Vultures. Vultures 

 are carrion feeders, relying upon dead meat and not capturing living prey 

 unless it is in the last stages of exhaustion. Ordinarily, they touch nothing 

 but decaying flesh. This is usually regarded as a matter of choice, but 

 may be a necessity, as their feet are not formed for grasping and the bill 

 is comparatively weak. They may, therefore, be unable to break into 

 large sound carcasses and are forced to await the decay which renders 

 the subject less refractory. 



FAMILY CATHARTID^I. TTJKKEY VULTURES. 



General Description. Large birds, uniformly nearly black in coloration. Bill is 

 comparatively long and less strongly hooked than in remainder of the Raptores (Figure 

 30, p. 23). Head and upper neck are bare of feathers and have a superficial general 

 resemblance to those of the Turkey, but are without wattles or warty excrescences. Feet 

 resemble those of a Chicken rather than a Hawk. Claws are blunt and the whole foot is 

 poorly adapted for seizing or holding prey. 



Distribution. Vultures are essentially birds of the warmer regions. They enter 

 eastern Canada only along the most southern boundaries. 



Vultures cannot be observed to advantage in Canada. In the southern 

 United States they can be seen every hour of the day floating on motionless 

 wings high in the air, searching the country with telescopic eye for carrion. 

 When an animal dies (or even before) it is sighted, and a black form drops 

 beside it from the sky; shortly it is joined by another, and another, and 

 soon where not a bird was previously to be seen many are struggling about 

 the unclean feast. Though dissection shows very highly developed nostrils, 

 scent does not seem to guide them to any appreciable extent. Experiment 

 indicates that the eyesight alone is relied upon for locating food. The 

 flight of the Vultures is one of the wonders of the physicist. The Vultures 

 hang suspended in the air or even rise until beyond the bounds of human 

 vision, without visible effort. On motionless outspread pinions they glide 

 in great ascending spirals, mounting higher and higher, and then, still 

 circling, maintain their positions for hours at a time, without a single 

 apparent stroke of the wing. Many explanations of the phenomenon have 

 been offered but all so far advanced fall just short of conviction. In 

 Canada we have only one species of regular though limited distribution. 

 Another is of casual occurrence only. 



Economic Status. The Vultures are not birds of prey in the usual 

 acceptation of the term, for they do not kill what they eat but feed entirely 

 on carrion. They have been accused, and perhaps justly, of accelerating 

 death at times, but they never attack an animal that is not in the last 



