The Turkey Vulture 



Taken in Riverside County 



such are more in evidence in Califor- 

 nia than all other Raptors combined. 

 The carcass of a large animal, a 

 horse or a cow, will attract a score 

 or more of these gruesome banquet- 

 ers. The early comers stuff them- 

 selves to repletion, and then stand 

 about upon the ground or roost in 

 neighboring trees until nature has 

 completed her task, and appetite 

 returns. At such feasts the Ravens 

 and Eagles get first helpings; Con- 

 dors, if any, come in next; so that 

 "Buzzards," perforce, get only the 

 leavings. It does not seem true, as 

 has sometimes been asserted, that 

 the birds really prefer decayed flesh. 

 It is rather a matter of necessity for 

 them, inasmuch as they are unable, 

 except in rare instances, to rend a 

 carcass sufficiently before an ad- 

 vanced stage of decomposition has 

 set in. 



The cattle ranges are not, as we 

 should have expected, especially fa- 

 vored by these birds. The wide- 

 spread practice of stockmen of poi- 

 soning carcasses for coyotes probably 

 accounts for this fact. The Vulture 

 is not in any particular danger of his 

 life from poison, but an overdose of 

 strychnine will cost him his dinner; 

 and what's the use of eating, if it 

 won't stay down? The Vulture has not, therefore, sunk to the moral 

 level achieved by Nero and his courtiers, for these infra-beasts at their 

 orgies are said to have relieved themselves again and again through the 

 aid of emetics, and so gorged and swilled until drunkenness overcame 

 them quite. On the other hand, Buzzards are very abundant in Mendo- 

 cino and Humboldt counties, the hog-raising belt, and one may w r ell 

 believe it is because hogs are not poisoned. 



The struggle for existence, sharpened in this case by the increase 

 of sanitary science, has made the apprehension of food increasingly 



BUZZARDS' ROOST 



Photo by the Author 



I74k 



