98 THE BIRDS 
ground and at rest. <A gorged bird sitting on some nearby 
fence rail, close to the cleanly picked skeleton, presents an 
entirely different aspect than when in flight; a more 
repulsive bird I do not know of. There is considerable 
talk the last few years of this bird and the following 
species, spreading diseases, or more particularly hog 
cholera. While I admit that there is probably much truth 
in this statement, and that many valuable hogs are lost 
through the spreading of this disease, on the other hand 
the amount of good they do will outweigh this two to one. 
When the farmers are educated up to burying their dead 
stock, this means of spreading diseases will stop, while the 
birds, thus deprived of this great amount of food, will be 
overzealous in their search for other edibles. Take our 
Tidewater beaches for instance; what would become of the 
refuse cast up by the tide were it not for these birds? 
Especially in the summer time, when the beaches are 
strewn with dead fish, are they most useful. There are 
many reasons, too numerous to mention, why they should 
not be exterminated as some people are now suggesting. 
The two eggs are deposited in some hollow log, hole at 
base of tree, or under a dead, fallen tree top, two in 
number. The ground color is a creamy-white, spotted and 
blotched with various shades of brown and lavender, and 
measure 2.75x1.90. Fresh eggs April 10th to May 1st. 
Only one brood a season. They remain throughout the 
entire year, though during the extreme cold spells some 
may migrate a little southward, only to return to their 
favorite locality as soon as the weather changes. I 
experienced seeing a migratory flock of probably one 
hundred birds returning from the south side of James 
River after a break in the cold spell of January, 1912. 
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