I knew that he had discovered the chicken. 

 Down he came, leisurely at first, spirally wind- 

 ing, as though descending some aerial stairway 

 from the clouds, till, just above the tree-tops, he 

 began to swing like a great pendulum through 

 the air, turning his head from side to side as he 

 passed over the chicken, watching to see if it 

 were alive. He was about to settle when I pulled 

 the string. Up he darted in great fright. Again 

 and again I repeated the experiment ; and each 

 time, at the least sign of life, the buzzard hurried 

 off — afraid of so inoffensive a thing as a chicken ! 

 Quite a different story comes to me from Penn- 

 sylvania. My correspondent writes : " Years ago, 

 while I was at school in De Kalb, Mississippi, all 

 the children had their attention called to a great 

 commotion in a chicken-yard next the school- 

 house. It appeared that a large hawk had settled 

 down and was doing battle with a hen. My bro- 

 ther left the school-house and ran to the yard, 

 cautiously opened the gate, slipped up behind, 

 and caught the 'hawk'— which proved to be a 

 large and almost famished turkey-buzzard. He 

 kept it four or five days, when it died." Ex- 

 treme hunger might drive a buzzard to at- 

 [338] 



