TURKEY VULTURE. 
13 
distance from it of several miles. When once they have found a car- 
cass they will not leave the place, if unmolested, till the whole is 
devoured. At such times they eat so immoderately, that frequently 
they are incapable of rising, and may be caught without much difficulty ; 
but few that are acquainted with them Avill have the temerity to undertake 
the task. A man in the state of Delaware, a few years ago, observing 
some Turkey-buzzards regaling themselves upon the carcass of a horse, 
which was in a highly putrid state, conceived the design of making a cap- 
tive of one, to take liome for the amusement of his children. He cau- 
tiously approached, and springing upon the unsuspicious group, grasped 
a fine plump fellow in his arms, and was bearing off his prize in triumph, 
when lo ! the indignant Vulture disgorged such a torrent of filth in the 
face of our hero, that it produced all the effects of the most powerful 
emetic, and for ever cured him of his inclination for Turkey-buzzards. 
On tlie continent of America this species inhabits a vast range of ter- 
ritory, being common,* it is said, from Nova Scotia to Terra del Fuego.f 
How far, on the Pacific, to the northward of the river Columbia, tliey 
are found, we are not informed ; but it is ascertained that tliey extend 
their migrations to the latter, allured thither by the quantity of dead 
salmon, which at certain seasons line its shores. 
They are numerous in the West India islands, where they are said to 
be "far inferior in size to those of North America."! This leads us to 
the inquiry, whether or not the present species has been confounded by 
the naturalists of Europe, with the Black Vulture, or Carrion Crow, 
which is so common in the southern parts of our continent. If not, why 
has the latter been totally overlooked in the most noted Ornithologies 
with which the world has been favored, when it is so conspicuous and 
remarkable, that there is no stranger that visits South Carolina, Geor- 
the result of a series of experiments, which were instituted to prove, that the Tur- 
key-bnzzard does not possess the sense of smdliiuj! This important enunciation 
would be calculated to disabuse us, with respect to the popular opinion on this 
subject, did we not recollect, that the sense of seciiuj had, also, by some ingenious 
naturalists, been denied to the Mole; and that the IJird of Paradise had been 
affirmed to be deficient of those useful omans of locomotion — leijs! The lovers of 
romance may now felicitate themselves upon the ascendancy of an observer, whose 
credible narratives may aspire to the honor of ranking with the tales of the artless 
John Dunn Hunter, or the wonders of that pink of vcracihj, the renowned Sir John 
Mandeville. 
* In the northern states of our union the Turkey-buzzard is only occasionally 
seen, it is considered a rare liird by the inhabitants. 
t Great numliers of a species of Vulture, commonly called Carrion Crow by the 
sailors, ( Viiltur aura,) were seen upon this island (New Year's Island, near Cape 
Horn, lat. 55 S. 67 W.) and proliably feed on young seal-cubs, which either die in 
the birtli, or which they take an opportunity to seize upon." Cook calls them Tur- 
key-buzzards. Forster's Voy. ii., p. 516, quarto, London, 1777. 
X Pennant, Arctic Zoology. 
