THE TURKEY BUZZARD. S3 
US is large and open. While coursing round this 
field, the vulture, suddenly rounding and falling, 
killed a garter snake, scarcely as large as a man's 
finger. The author tells us, he plainly saw that 
the vulture could see this snake hundreds of yards 
distant. I am not surprised that the vulture saw 
the snake hundreds of yards distant, as I am fully 
aware of the keen sight of all birds ; but what really 
astonishes me is, that the author could see the 
snake, and know it to be a garter snake ; for, upon 
the face of the statement, I am led to conclude that 
he himself, as well as the vulture, was hundreds of 
yards distant from the snake. It were much to be 
wished that the author had said something positive 
with regard to the actual distance of the snake 
from the tree under which he had taken his stand. 
Again, the author tells us, in the beginning of this 
experiment, that he retired about a few hundred 
yards from the spot where he had placed the deer- 
skin, in the middle of the large open field ; and that 
a vulture, in the lapse of some minutes, alighted 
within a few yards of the skin. The author ran 
immediately, covered by a large tree, till within 
about forty yards of the skin. Now, quickness of 
sight in the vulture being the very essence of our 
author s paper in Jamesons Journal^ I am at a loss 
to conceive how our author contrived to run over 
the few hundred yards unseen by the vulture. To 
be sure, a large tree intervened ; but then the 
vulture happened to be about forty yards on the 
other side of it; and this distance of the vulture 
from the tree would be all in its favour for descry- 
