ECONOMIC RELATIONS OF OUR BIRDS. 
589 
180. Cathartes aura (Linn.), III. TURKEY BUZZARD. Group II. Class a. 
Reported as occurring in the state by Dr. Hoy. 
Mr. Trippe states that it is abundant in Minnesota and that it breeds there. 
From this statement it is probable that it occurs frequently along the Mississippi 
in Wisconsin, but in the eastern portion of the state it is very rare. Since 
writing the above I have found it at River Falls. Although generally a scaven¬ 
ger, the Turkey Buzzard, when pressed by hunger, kills young pigs and lambs 
and other weak and disabled animals. “One excellent service which the Tur¬ 
key Vultures render,” says Dr. Coues, “in warm countries, is the destruction of 
alligators’ eggs.” It is also accused of sucking the eggs and devouring the young 
of many species of Herons. Such tendencies as these render a bird like this of 
doubtful utility in a climate like ours. 
Food: Carrion (Wilson). The carcasses of animals (Cooper). Carrion, disabled 
animals and eggs of birds, etc. (De Kay). Eggs and young of many species of 
Herons (Audubon). Skunks in traps (Am. Nat., Vol. XII, p. 821, W. Kite). 
Family COLIJMBID.E: Pigeons. 
Fig. 140. 
Wild Pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius ). After Bd., Br. and Ridg. 
181. Ectopistes migratorius (Linn.), Sw. WILD PIGEON; PASSENGER 
PIGEON. Group I. Class c. 
Food: Acorns and other nuts, grain, buckwheat and various small seeds are 
its usual food. From the stomach of one specimen, however, were taken two 
large caterpillars — one of which was an Edema alhifrons ,— one harvest-man. 
nine black crickets and four grasshoppers. 
Buckwheat, hemp-seed, Indian corn, hackberries, huckleberries, acorns and 
chestnuts (Wilson). Beech-nuts, acorns, berries, rice and seeds (De Kay). 
Acorns, beech-nuts, berries, grains and weed-seeds (Samuels). Acorns (Forbes). 
