320 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



Our limits will only allow us to give a succinct account of some of 

 the most interesting birds of the United States, for which we are 

 chiefly indebted to Mr. Wilson's Work. It is necessary to premise 

 that he follows, with some exceptions, the arrangement of Latham. 



Turkey Vulture or Turkey -buzzard. This bird is found throughout, 

 the United States, but is most numerous in the Southern section of 

 the union. The Turkey-buzzards are gregarious, peaceable and 

 harmless: never offering any violence to a living animal, or, like the 

 plunderers of the Falco tribe, depriving the husbandman of his stock. 

 Their food is carrion, of which they eat so immoderately, that fre- 

 quently they are incapable of flying, until they disgorge the contents 

 of their stomach. The female lays from two to four eggs in a hol- 

 low tree, stump, or log ; and brings forth her young in May. The 

 young are extremely filthy. 



Black Vulture or Carrion-crow Mr. William Bartram was the first 

 naturalist who indicated this bird as a distinct species from the pre- 

 ceding ; notwithstanding which, all the Ornithologists of Europe have 

 coniounded it with the Turkey-buzzard. In the Atlantic States the 

 Black Vulture is seldom found to the northward of Newbern, North 

 Carolina ; but inhabits the whole continent, to the southward, as far 

 as Cape Horn. In the towns and villages of the Southern Sates, par- 

 ticularly Charleston, Georgetown, and Savannah, they may be seen 

 sauntering about the streets, or sunning themselves on the roofs of 

 the houses, and the fences ; and may be said to be completely domes- 

 ticated : being quite as familiar as the domestic poultry. They, as 

 well as the Turkey-buzzards, are protected by a law or usage; and 

 have a respect paid them as scavengers, whose labours are subser- 

 vient to the public good. They devour animal food of all kinds, 

 whether putrid or otherwise. They are highly useful birds. In those 

 parts of the continent where the Alligators abound, they attend these 

 dreadful amphibious animals, when they deposite their eggs in the 

 sand, and devour them the first opportunity. The destruction of these 

 birds ought to be prohibited under severe penalties. 



White-headed or Bald Eagle. This distinguished bird, as he is 

 the most beautiful of his tribe in this part of the world, and the adopted 

 emblem of our country, is entitled to particular notice. He has been 

 long known to naturalists, being common to both continents, and oc- 

 casionally met with from a very high northern latitude, to the bor- 

 ders of the torrid zone, but chiefly in the vicinity of the sea, and 

 along the shores and cliff's of our lakes and large rivers. Formed by 

 nature for braving the severest cold; feeding equally on the produce 

 of the sea, and of the land; possessing powers of flight capable of 

 outstripping even the tempests themselves; unawed by any thing but 

 man ; and from the ethereal heights to which he soars, looking abroad, 

 at one glance, on an immeasurable expanse of forests, fields, lakes 

 and ocean, deep below him, he appears indifferent to the little loca- 

 lities of change of seasons; as in a few minutes he can pass from 

 summer to winter, from the lower to the higher regions of the atmos- 

 phere, the abode of eternal cold, and thence descend at will to the 

 torrid, or the arctic regions of the earth. He is therefore found at 

 all seasons in the countries he inhabits; but prefers such places as 

 have been mentioned above, from the great partiality which he has 

 for fish. 



In procuring these he displays, in a very singular manner, the ge- 

 nius and energy of his character, which is fierce, contemplative, da- 



