H 



THE COLLECTORS' MONTHLY. 



The Turkey Buzzard. 



For the Collectors Monthly. 



The Turkey Vulture is deserving of our 

 greatest praise and protection, for no other 

 bird renders such invaluable and immediate 

 service as does the Buzzard. Other birds 

 destroy insects which may injure our crops, 

 they also destroy those which do no harm as 

 well as those that are a benifit to us, besides 

 charging "toll" from the crop itself, We 

 can live without gay plumage, we can live 

 without their song, but when we come to 

 considt- r health as a factor of our existance 

 we must not fail to vote the Vulture as our 

 most valuable bird, The Turkey Vulture 

 is more attentive to its duty than the other 

 species, but its great numbers, vast region of 

 extent and its seeming fearlessness enable it 

 to secure the greater portion of food, and 

 not even the dead rat in the barnyard is 

 allowed to escape notice. Its God given 

 powers enable it to subsist upon that, which 

 is not only noxious to our external senses, 

 but is poison and disease to our systems. 



Endowed with the keenest scent and the 

 sharpest eye the Buzzard is ever ready and 

 anxious to remove the decaying carcasses 

 from the fields. 



We cannot comprehend their value to us, 

 but we do know that their's is a welcome 

 mission, which promotes our better health, 

 and health means wealth and happiness. 



The Buzzard is the most widely distributed 

 of any of the familv, (also the most numerous) 

 and, perhaps of any of our birds. Its range 

 extends over the whole of the U. S., Southern 

 Canada, Mexico, Central America, and the 

 greater part of South America. It is most 

 abundant in the warmer portion of the 

 continent, the farther south one goes, the 

 greater the need, and here they are found 

 soaring by hundreds, in company with their 

 near relatives, the Black Vulture, or Carrion 

 Crow. The two are often mistaken for each 

 other, though a second look is sufficient to 

 determine their difference. The Buzzard is 



of a dirty brown color, with long, bent wings 

 and divergent quills at the ends, and takes 

 two or three long sweeping strokes of the 

 wings, while the Carrion Crow is black, has 

 short straight, round ended wings and flies 

 heavilv, making about six short, quick 

 strokes in rapid succession, and repeated 

 often, whereas the Buzzard may sail for 

 hours, with perhaps, only now and then a 

 single wave of the wings. When seen closer, 

 the Buzzard has a red head and neck similar 

 to a common turkey's (hence the name), and 

 the Carrion Crow is black. 



When anywhere but in the sky overhead, 

 the Buzzard seems to be out of his realm, 

 away from home. He is awkward, clumsy, 

 fi'thy and unsightly. But let him stretch 

 his powerful wings out over the fields, and 

 he at once becomes the most graceful bird of 

 the air, sailing, and rocking, as it were, on 

 the billows of the sky. Other birds (such as 

 the Hawks), feeling a sense of pride, mount 

 into the heavens to try their skill at soaring, 

 but fall far short of the Buzzard's standard 

 of excellence, and presently drop into the 

 forests below. 



The very nature of the Buzzard's occupa- 

 tion, or manner of subsistence, often re- 

 quires him to go hungry (for he is wont to 

 kill), and consequently, when he does find 

 food, gorges himself till unable to fly. If 

 disturbed he will disgorge his meal to make 

 safe his escape. I have no authentic record 

 of ones ever attacking a life animal, though 

 they sometimes hover over a d/ing beist till 

 life is extinct, rather then eat the flesh of a 

 living being. 



Like other American Vultures he has no 

 voice, but only hisses like a goose or setting 

 turkey. 



The muscles of the wings, like those of 

 most other sailing birds, are so arranged that 

 when the wings are spread, it requires no 

 effort on the part of the bird, to keep them 

 thus, and it can soar all day without tireing. 

 It's extreme lightness also aids much to 

 easy flight, its body being even smaller than 

 that of the Carrion Crow. 



