THE TURKEY BUZZARD. 
29 
ition. I would stake my life upon it, that not only 
the fifty vultures would be at the carcass next morn- 
ing, but also that every vulture in the adjacent forest 
would manage to get there in time to partake of the 
repast. 
Here I will stop, fearing that I have already 
drawn too largely on the reader's patience; but 
really I could not bear to see the vulture deprived 
of the most interesting feature in its physiognomy 
with impunity. These are notable times for orni- 
thology : one author gravely tells us that the water- 
ousel walks on the bottom of streams ; another de- 
scribes an eagle as lubricating its plumage from an 
oil-gland ; a third renews in print the absurdity that 
the rook loses the feathers at the base of the bill 
by seeking in the earth for its food ; while a fourth, 
lamenting that the old name, Caprimulgus, serves 
to propagate an absurd vulgar error, gives to the 
bird the new name of mght-swallou\ 
" In nova fert animus.'* 
THE MEANS BY WHICH THE TURKEY BUZ- 
ZARD TRACES ITS FOOD. 
In answer to the remark of Mr. Percival Hunter 
in the Magazine of Natural History, vol. iv. p. 83., 
that my account of the habits of the Vultur Aura 
is at variance with the observations of Wilson, 
Humboldt, and Azara, I beg to inform him, that I 
pronounced the Vultur Aura of Guiana to be not 
gregarious^ after the closest attention to its habits 
