
126 TURKEY VULTURE. 
the northern and middle States it is partially migratory, the 
greater part retiring to the south on the approach of cold 
ramphus of Dumeril, and Cathartes of Illiger ; the one containing the 
condor and Californian vultures ; the other, the turkey buzzards, &c., 
of Wilson. They are, perhaps, generally, the most unseemly and dis- 
gusting of the whole feathered race, of loose and ill-kept plumage, of 
sluggish habits when not urged on by hunger, feeding on any animal 
food which they can easily tear to pieces, but often upon the most put- 
rid and loathsome carrion. They have been introduced by the ancients 
in their beautiful but wild conceptions and imagery, and have been em- 
bodied in the tales of fiction and poems of the modern day as all that 
is lurid, disgusting, and horrible. They are the largest of the feathered 
race, if we except the Struthionide, or that group to which the ostrich, 
cassowary, and bustards belong, and have long been celebrated on account 
of their great strength. Many fabulous stories are recorded of the for- 
midable condor carrying off men, bullocks, and even elephants. 
They have been called the scavengers of nature ; and in warm climates, 
where all animal matter so soon decays, they are no doubt useful in 
clearing off what would soon fill the air with noxious miasmata. In 
many parts of Spain and southern Europe, the Meophron percnopterus, 
or Egyptian vulture of Savieny, and in America, the native species, are 
allowed to roam unmolested through the towns, and are kept in the 
market-places, as storks are in Holland, to clear away the refuse and 
offal ; and a high penalty is attached to the destruction of any of them. 
In this state they become very familiar and independent. Mr Audubon 
compares them to a garrisoned half-pay soldier : “'To move is for them 
a hardship ; and nothing but extreme hunger will make them fly down 
from the roof of the kitchen into the yard. At Natchez, the number 
of these expecting parasites is so great, that all the refuse within their 
reach is insufficient to maintain them.” They appear also to have been 
used for a most revolting purpose among barbarous nations, or at least, 
in conjunction with wild animals, were depended upon to assist in de- 
stroying and clearing away the dead, which were purposely exposed to 
their ravages, Some, however, are elegant and graceful in their form 
and plumage, and vie with the eagles in strength and activity. Such 
is the Vultur barbatus of Edwards, the lammergeyer of the European 
Alps. 
Independent of the species mentioned by our author, three others 

the principal forms wanting to the Raptores, and I know that Mr Swainson pos- 
sesses a New Holland bird, whose station he has been unable to decide, whether 
it will enter here, orrange with the gallinaceous birds. I trust that that gentle- 
man will, ere long, work out its affinities as far as possible, and give it to the 
public.—Eb. 
dj 
b 

