OF VIRGINIA 97 
FAMILY CATHARTID/AZ.—AMERICAN 
VULTURES. 
GENUS CATHARTES. 
[325]. Cathartes aura septentrionalis (Wied). Turkey 
Vulture. 
[Buzzard. Turkey Buzzard]. 
Rance.—Austral and Transition zones from southern 
British Columbia, Saskatchewan, western Manitoba, 
northern Minnesota, southwestern Ontario, western and 
southern New York, and New Jersey south to southern 
Lower California and northern Mexico; winters through- 
out most of its regular range on the Atlantic slope but 
westward retires to California, Nebraska, and the Ohio 
Valley; casual in Wisconsin, Michigan, northern Ontario, 
and New Brunswick. 
There is no bird, in ny estimation, that has reached the 
height of perfection in its flight-sailing powers that the 
Turkey Vulture or Buzzard has attained. Watch him on 
a windy day; no matter how hard it blows he goes right 
into the teeth of the gale without flapping a wing. After 
he reaches a certain height from the ground, about fifty 
feet when rising from it, he can sail by spirals out of 
sight without a perceptible wing beat. Many persons 
think the sea gull a greater master of this art, and while 
I admit the gulls are more graceful, still the Turkey Vul- 
ture is his superior in a wider area. It seems a pity that 
a bird that can have such wonderful talents in flight 
should be a carrion bird, getting his food entirely on the 
