228 
TURKEY VULTURE. 
weather. But numbers remain all the winter in Maryland, 
Delaware, and New Jersey ; particularly in the vicinity of the 
in the northern hemisphere, are common along the coast of California, hut are 
never seen beyond the woody parts of the country. I have met with them as 
far to the north as 49 deg. North lat., in the summer and autumn months, but 
nowhere so abundantly as in the Columbian valley, between the grand rapids 
and the sea. They build their nests in the most secret and impenetrable parts 
of the pine forests, invariably selecting the loftiest trees that overhang precipices 
on the deepest and least accessible parts of the mountain valleys. The nest is 
large, composed of strong thorny twigs and grass, in every way similar to that of 
the eagle tribe, but more slovenly constructed. The same pair resort for several 
years to the same nest, bestowing little trouble or attention in repairing it. Eggs, 
two, nearly spherical, about the size of those of a goose, jet black. Period of in- 
cubation, twenty-nine or thirty-one days. They hatch generally about the first 
of June. The young are covei’ed with thick whitish down, and are incapable of 
leaving the nest until the fifth or sixth week. Their food is carrion, dead fish, or 
other dead animal substance; in no instance will they attack any living animal, un- 
less it be wounded and unable to walk. Their senses of smelling and seeing are 
remarkably keen. In searching for prey, they soar to a very great altitude, and 
when they discover a wounded deer, or other animal, they follow its track, and 
when it sinks, precipitately descend on their object. Although only one is at 
first seen occupying the carcass, few minutes elapse before the prey is surrounded 
by great numbers ; and it is then devoured to a skeleton within an hour, even 
though it be one of the larger animals — Cervus elaphus, for instance — or a horse. 
Their voracity is almost insatiable, and they are extremely ungenerous, suffering 
no other animal to approach them while feeding. After eating, they become so 
sluggish and indolent, as to remain in the same place until urged by hunger to 
go in quest of another repast. At such times they perch on decayed trees, with 
their heads so much retracted, as to be with difficulty observed through the long, 
loose, lanceolate feathers of the collar. The wings, at the same time, hang down 
over the feet. This position they invariably preserve in dewy mornings, or after 
rains,” 
The third species, C. papa, not mentioned by Wilson, is introduced in the Si/~ 
nopsis of Birds of the United States, by the Prince of Musignano,who mentions 
its occurrence only in the warmer parts of North America; it appears occasionally 
in Florida during summer. The other two are of much more frequent occurrence, 
and are of less noble dispositions, more sluggish, very easily intimidated, and 
dirty in the extreme. Truly clearing away all animal matter, they assemble in 
vast troops upon the discovery of some dead, or nearly dying animal, and exhibit 
at their feasts scenes of the utmost gluttony and filth. Their power of scenting 
their quarry from afar, has been proved erroneous, by the well-managed experi- 
ments of Mr Audubon ; and, indeed, I never was inclined to think that any birds 
were endowed with any remarkable developement of this particular sense. — Ed. 
