TURKEY VULTURE. 15 



distance from it of several miles. When once they have found a car- 

 cass they will not leave the place, if unmolested, till the whole is 

 devoured. At such times they eat so immoderately, that frequently 

 they are incapable of rising, and may be caught without much difficulty ; 

 but few that are acquainted with them will have the temerity to undertake 

 the task. A man in the state of Delaware, a few years ago, observing 

 some Turkey-buzzards regaling themselves upon the carcass of a horse, 

 which was in a highly putrid state, conceived the design of making a cap- 

 tive of one, to take home for the amusement of his children. H-e cau- 

 tiously approached, and springing upon the unsuspicious group, grasped 

 a fine plump fellow in his arms, and was bearing oif his prize in triumph, 

 when lo ! the indignant Vulture disgorged such a torrent of filth in the 

 face of our hero, that it produced all the eiFects of the most powerful 

 emetic, and for ever cured him of his inclination for Turkey-buzzards. 



On the continent of America this species inhabits a vast range of ter- 

 ritory, being common,* it is said, from Nova Scotia to Terra del Fuego.f 

 How far, on the Pacific, to the northward of the river Columbia, they 

 are found, we are not informed ; but it is ascertained that they extend 

 their migrations to the latter, allured thither by the quantity of dead 

 salmon, which at certain seasons line its shores. 



They are numerous in the West India islands, where they are said to 

 be "far inferior in size to those of North America."J This leads us to 

 the inquiry, whether or not the present species has been confounded by 

 the naturalists of Europe, with the Black Vulture, or Carrion Crow, 

 which is so common in the southern parts of our continent. If not, why 

 has the latter been totally overlooked in the most noted Ornithologies 

 with which the world has been favored, when it is so conspicuous and 

 remarkable, that there is no stranger that visits South Carolina, Geor- 



the result of a series of experiments, which were instituted to prove, that the Tur- 

 key-buzzard does not possess the sense of smelling ! This important enunciation 

 would be calculated to disabuse us, with respect to the popular opinion on this 

 subject, did we not recollect, that the sense of seeing had, also, by some ingenious 

 naturalists, been denied to the Mole; and that the Bird of Paradise had been 

 affirmed to be deficient of those useful organs of locomotion — legs! The lovers of 

 romance may now felicitate themselves upon the ascendancy of an observer, whose 

 nredihle narratives may aspire to the honor of ranking with the tales of the artless 

 John Dunn Hunter, or the wonders of that pink oi veracity, the renowned Sir John 

 Mande^ille. 



* In the northern states of our union the Turkey-buzzard is only occasionally 

 seen, it is considered a rare bird by the inhabitants. 



t Great numbers of a species of Vulture, commonly called Carrion Crow by the 

 sailors, { Vultur aura,) were seen upon this island (New Year's Island, near Cape 

 Horn, lat. 55 S. 67 W.) and probably feed on young seal-cubs, which either die 'in 

 the birth, or which they take an opportunity to seize upon.'' Cook calls them Tur- 

 key-buzzards. Forster's Voy. IL, p. 516, quarto, London, 17Y7. 



X Pennant, Arctic Zoology. 



