256 
OBSERVATIONS ON VULTURES 
the sand flats of rivers, and borders of the sea shore ; is 
more cleanly in its appearance ; and, as you will see by 
the difference in the drawings in both species, a neater 
and better formed bird. Its flight is also vastly superior 
in swiftness and elegance, needing but a few flaps of its 
large wings to raise it from the ground, after which it 
will sail for miles, by merely turning either on one side 
or the other, and using its tail so slowly, to alter its 
course, that a person looking at it, whilst elevated 
and sailing, would be inclined to compare it to a machine, 
fit to perform just a certain description of evolutions. 
The noise made by the vultures through the air, as they 
glide obliquely towards the earth, is often as great as 
that of our largest hawks, when falling on their prey ; 
but they never reach the ground in this manner, always 
checking when about a hundred yards high, and going 
several rounds, to examine well the spot they are about 
to alight on. The Vultur aura cannot bear cold weather 
well : the few who, during the heat of the summer, 
extend their excursions to the Middle, or Northern 
States, generally all return at the approach of winter ; 
and I believe also, that very few of these birds breed 
eastward of the pine swamps of West Jersey. They 
are much attached to particular roosting trees, and I 
know will come to them every night from a great 
distance. On alighting on these, each of them, anxious 
for a choice of place, creates always a general distur- 
bance ; and often, when quite dark, their hissing noise 
is heard, in token of this inclination for supremacy. 
These roosting trees of the buzzards are generally in 
deep swamps, and mostly high, dead cypresses. Fre- 
quently, however, they roost with the carrion crows, 
{Vultur atratus ,) and then it is on the largest dead 
timber of our fields, not unfrequently close to the 
houses. Sometimes, also, this bird will roost close to 
the body of a thick leaved tree. In such position, I 
have killed several, when hunting wild turkeys by 
moonlight nights, and mistaking them for these latter 
birds. 
<fi In Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia, and Carolina, 
