234 



ORDERS OF BIRDS— BIRDS OP PREY 



an object of admiration, and a reminder of 

 William Tail's Alpine eagle, which— for senti- 

 mental reasons, only — he "could not ..shoot." 



" His broad, expanded wings 

 Lay calm and motionless upon the air, 

 As if he floated there without their aid, 

 By the sole act of his unlorded will, 

 That buoyed him proudly up." 



The flight of the Vulture, by which it gains 

 enormous heights without any serious exertion 

 after getting well clear of the earth, is an inter- 

 esting illustration of what a perfect areodrome 

 might accomplish if it could flap its wings for a 

 lofty rise, sail with abundant wing-power, and 

 be intelligently guided. Beyond doubt, the 

 bird keeps aloft by properly utilizing the lifting 

 power of air-currents. 



By a strange coincidence, the bird which flies 

 highest and longest, and soars most majestically, 

 is also the bird of lowest tastes on the earth. 

 Although it has strong talons and a strong beak, 

 it kills nothing, and feeds upon dead animals. 

 In every country on earth, vultures are treated 

 as highly useful creatures. In the tropics, 

 where their services really are of great value, 

 they are fully protected by law. 



The species found farthest north, with a bright- 

 red head and neck, is the Turkey Vulture, and 

 it ranges across the continent from the plains 

 of the Saskatchewan to Batagonia. 



The Black Vulture,^ marked by a head and 

 plumage which is perfectly black, is seldom seen 

 in the northern portions of the United States, 

 but is abundant in the Gulf states, and south- 

 ward far down into South America. In ap- 

 pearance this bird is most funereal. It is a 

 smaller bird than the turkey vulture, but does 

 not Hy so well, and flaps its wings oftener. 

 Around the cities of the South it is a great 

 .domestic economist and labor-saver. 



In Bombay, India, the Barsees expose their 

 dead in two great, shallow, open-topped towers, 

 called the Towers of Silence, and the vultures 

 regularly devour them, — all except the bones, 

 which fall down into a central pit. 



The California Vulture, or California 

 "Condor,"^ is, among naturalists, the most 



' Cath-ar-is'ta ur'v-bu. Average length, about 25 

 inches. 

 ^ Gym'no-gyps californianus. 



celebrated bird of this Family, partly because 

 it is our largest bird of prey, and also because 

 of its great rarity. The "collectors" are certain 

 to exterminate it in a very few years. Its ap- 

 pearance depends upon its attitude. With its 

 wings spread, it is a grand bird; but with them 

 closed its personality is far less impressive. On 

 the wing, in the wild, rocky fastnesses of its na- 

 tive mountains, those who have seen it there say it 

 is a grand and imposing object, and it is not to 

 be wondered at that its pursuit is quite as ex- 

 citing as the chase of the big-horn. 



E. F. Keller, Photo., National Zoological Park. 

 YOUNG CALIFORNI.A. VULTURE. 



Mrs. Florence Merriam Bailey^ gives the fol- 

 lowing as the dimensions of this bird; "Length, 

 44 to 55 inches; wing-spread, S+ to nearly 11 

 feet; weight, 20 to 25 pounds. Distribution: 

 coast ranges of southern California from iMon- 

 terey Bay south to Lower California, and east 

 to Arizona." 



This great Vulture breeds in the most inac- 

 cessible crags it can find, but of course collectors 

 find it. In 1894, Mr. Stephens actually encoun- 

 tered a flock of twenty-six of these magnificent 



^ " Handbook of Birds of the Western United 

 States," p. 144. 



