TURKEY VULTURE 
By T. GILBERT PEARSON 
The National Association of Audubon Societies 
Educational Leaflet No. 100 
While travelling through almost any section of the soiithefn and 
western states one has but to look up to discover off against the sun-lit 
sky the dark form of a Turkey Vulture keeping its vigil over the earth 
beneath. No land bird of this country is comparable to it in matters 
of grace and majesty of movement while in the air. As it soars, with 
scarcely a wing-beat, now low over the gardens or woods, and again 
far aloft in the eternal blue, the watcher may well exclaim "‘behold 
flight in its utmost perfection 
Turkey Vulture, Four Weeks Old 
Photograph by Thomas H. Jackson 
Turkey Buzzards, as these birds are almost universally called, are 
not so abundant as some observers have been led to believe. They 
are such large and striking creatures, and keep so much in view, the 
error of thinking they exist by thousands in any given community is 
perhaps a natural one. And yet for so large a bird we may consider them 
relatively numerous. 
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