TURKEY VULTURE. 
235 
longer than the outer one, which is the next longest ; the sole 
of the foot is hard and rough ; claws dark horn colour ; the legs 
are of a pale flesh colour, and three inches long. The claws 
are larger, but the feet slenderer than those of the carrion crow. 
The bill of the male is pure white ; in some specimens the 
upper mandible is tipt with black. There is little or no per- 
ceptible difference between the sexes. 
The bird from which the foregoing description was taken, 
was shot for this work, at Great Egg Harbour, on tne 30th of 
January. It was a female, in perfect plumage, excessively fat, 
and weighed five pounds one ounce avoirdupois. On dissec- 
tion it emitted a slight musky odour. 
The vulture is included in the catalogue of those fowls de- 
clared unclean and an abomination by the Levitical law, and 
which the Israelites were interdicted eating.* We presume 
that this prohibition was religiously observed, so far at least as 
it related to the vulture, from whose flesh there arises such an 
unsavoury odour, that we question if all the sweetening pro- 
cesses ever invented could render it palatable to Jew, Pagan, 
or Christian. 
Since the above has been ready for the press, we have seen 
the History of the Expedition under the command of Lewis 
and Clark, and find our conjecture with respect to the migra- 
tion of the turkey buzzard verified, several of this species 
having been observed at Brant Island, near the Falls of the 
Columbia.! 
* Leviticus, xi, 14-. Deuteronomy, xiv. 13. 
f History of the Expedition, vol. ii. p. 233. 
