468 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN. 



Copyright , 1007, by H. T. Bohlman and Wm. L. Pinley. 



PARENT CONDOR AND "GENERAL." 

 The man is stroking the young bird. 



though they had watched their keeper intently. 

 He now re-entered and threw down one or two 

 small bits of meat. Within a second or two, al- 

 most as the meat left the hand of the keeper, 

 every vulture swooped to the ground and was 

 hissing and struggling for a portion of the food. 

 Twice the Black Vultures walked close about the 

 meat box without appearing to notice the odor 

 which was clearly perceptible, even to persons 

 outside of the cage. A Turkey Vulture walked 

 to leeward, instantly turned and made his way 

 to the box, which he exam- 

 ined on all sides. He was 

 soon joined by two others of 

 the same species, and all 

 three took up their stations 

 close to the source of the 

 odor. Soon two Black Vul- 

 tures came up, apparently 

 impelled more by imitation 

 than by actual discovery of 

 the smell. All five birds re- 

 mained for a long time 

 grouped close to the box. 

 going to it now and then, 

 and examining it carefully. 

 Thus even in the Turkey 

 Vulture the sense of smell 

 is certainly not highly de- 

 veloped, and compared with 

 the sense of sight is defect- 

 ive indeed. 



These Buzzards, in cer- 

 tain parts of the South, have 



gained notoriety lor them- 

 selves by actually killing 

 animals. Sheep have to be 

 carefully watched, as the 

 Buzzards willkwill the new- 

 horn lambs by striking at 

 the eyes. But this recently 

 acquired habit appears to be 

 of very rare occurrence, and 

 shuld in no wise militate 

 against the incalculably 

 wide-spread value of these 

 birds to mankind in the 

 tropics. 



The inception of a habit 

 such as this is easy to ex- 

 plain. On the first days of 

 its existence the new-born 

 lamb lies prostrate and mo- 

 tionless, often for several 

 hours at a time. The Buz- 

 zard, seeing it thus, natural- 

 ly supposes it to be dead, 

 and as these birds usually 

 consume the eyes of a dead animal before de- 

 vouring the remainder of the body, they natu- 

 rally attack these organs first in the young lamb. 

 If the Turkey Buzzard could be added to our 

 fauna, its graceful soaring form would be a 

 never-ending delight, and if farmers could be 

 made to distinguish it from equally harmless 

 "hen" hawks, or better still be taught to wage 

 war only on the sharp-shinned and cooper hawk, 

 the introduction of these birds might be accom- 

 plished. 



CAl UORNIA CONDOR "GENERAL" IN THE ZOOLOGICAL PARK. 



