k a live animal.

They will even visit the streets of the cities in search of dead
animals for food, and do not show much fear of man. Oftentimes they
are found among the chickens and ducks in the barn-yard, but have
never been known to kill any.

One gentleman who has studied the habits of the Vulture says that
it has been known to suck the eggs of Herons. This is not common,
though. As I said they prefer dead animals for their food and even eat
their own dead.

The Vulture is very graceful while on the wing. He sails along and you
can hardly see his wings move as he circles about looking for food on
the ground below.

Many people think the Vulture looks much like our tame turkey.

If you know of a turkey near by, just compare this picture with it and
you won't think so.

See how chalk-white his bill is. No feathers on his head, but a bright
red skin.

What do you think of the young chick? It doesn't seem as though he
could ever be the large, heavy bird his parent seems to be.

Now turn back to the first page of July "BIRDS" and see how he differs
from the Eagle.

[Illustration: From col. F. M. Woodruff.
TURKEY VULTURE.]

THE TURKEY VULTURE.

Turkey Buzzard is the familiar name applied to this bird, on account
of his remarkable resemblance to our common Turkey. This is the only
respect however, in which they are alike. It inhabits the United
States and British Provinces from the Atlantic to the Pacific, south
through Central and most of South America. Every farmer knows it to
be an industrious scavenger, devouring at all times the putrid or
decomposing flesh of carcasses. They are found in flocks, not only
flying and feeding in company, but resorting to the same spot to
roost; nesting also in communities; depositing their eggs on the
ground, on rocks, or in hollow logs and stumps, usually in thick woods
or in a sycamore grove, in the bend or fork of a stream. The nest is
frequently built in a tree, or in the cavity of a sycamore stump,
though a favorite place for depositing the eggs is a little depression
under a small bush or overhanging rock on a steep hillside.

Renowned naturalists have long argued that the Vulture does not have
an extraordinary power of smell, but, according to Mr. Davie, an
excellent authority, it has been proven by the most satisfactory
experiments that the Turkey Buzzard does possess a keen sense of smell
by which it can distinguish the odor of flesh at