329 
TURKEY BUZZARD. 
Average measurements of male specimens from Florida. Length, 26'75; stretch, G7 - 00; wing, 21'GO; tail, 10 - 85; bill, 
1- 47; tarsus, 2'37. Longest specimen, 27 - 25; greatest extent of wing, 72-00; longest wing, 22-00; tail, ll - 50; bill, 2'00; tar¬ 
sus, 2-75. Shortest specimen, 24-50; smallest extent of wing, 62'CO; shortest wing, 20'00; tail, 10'40; bill, LOO; tarsus, 
2- 03. 
DESCRIPTION OF NESTS AND EGGS. 
Nests, placed on the tops of stumps, on logs, on ruined buildings, in hollow trees, or on the ground; but little or no 
material is used. 
Eyys, one or two in number varying from elliptical to oval in form, dirty-white or creamy in color, spotted and blotched 
irregularly, but sometimes more thickly on the larger end, with reddish-brown and umber. Dimensions from I’80 x2 - 65 
to 1-90x2-75. 
HABITS. 
When one sees the Red-headed Vultures for the first time and observes their various 
aerial evolutions, now sailing high in air on motionless wings or gliding rapidly along the 
surface of the ground, avoiding the numerous obstacles in their path, with the greatest 
ease; rising and falling with a flight so smooth that it is seldom excelled by other birds; 
in short, performing all their movements upon the wing with the utmost grace and ele¬ 
gance, I repeat, when one sees all this for the first time, he cannot help exclaiming, 
“What magnificent birds!” Then, if not ornithologist enough to recognize the species, 
he turns to inquire its name of the nearest native, he will be greeted, especially if the one 
he questions be a descendant of Ham, with a look of astonishment followed by a broad 
grin, at the apparent absurdity of the interrogative, while the immediate answer is given in 
a tone in which disgust is so very apparent as to-create surprise—“Hat, why doan yer 
know what dat is? Hat yer is nothin but a dirty Buzzard.” Although this appears to be 
quite like slander without a just cause, one soon learns to take the same view of the case 
and, after becoming intimately acquainted with the birds, one cannot help regarding them 
as “nothing but dirty Buzzards,” and no matter how elegant and varied are their gyra¬ 
tions, one can never look upon them with quite the same admiration as he did before wit¬ 
nessing their disgusting habits. There is no denying this charge, they are most decidedly 
disgusting birds, not only being vile feeders on carrion but they eat it to excess, frequently 
becoming so crammed that they are unable to move, when they are obliged to disgorge a 
portion of their ill-smelling provender before they can take flight. 
Turkey Buzzards are the greatest cowards that I ever saw among birds; when one is 
captured, which can be readily done by employing steel traps, it never makes the slight¬ 
est attempt at defense, but merely hangs its head in the most abject manner, and if it has 
been eating anything recently, will discharge the contents of ils stomach at its captor’s feet, 
not because it wishes to get rid of the food but because it evidently intends to make a kind 
of peace-offering, which too often, however, proves more highly odoriferous than accepta¬ 
ble. This habit of relinquishing what they have eaten when attacked or frightened, is so 
strong with the Turkey Buzzards that they will always vomit when wounded and I have 
seen_them do the same thing when I have been passing them as they sat on the low limb 
of a tree. 
As a redeeming trait, however, of the Red-headed Vultures, I must say that they will 
eat fresh meat when they can get it and I think they prefer it to carrion for they would 
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