Buzzard

or Turkey Vulture, a bird of prey belonging to the family of American vultures. The common species ranges from Manitoba to Patagonia. In the northern part of the Mississippi Valley, the buzzard seems to be sharing the fate of other large birds. It becomes rarer from year to year, but in the south it is protected by law, and is the official scavenger of farm and town, taking care of a dead farm animal, a cat in the gutter, or of kitchen offal. It shambles out of the way of a foot passenger, but is almost as fearless as a turkey. It has a hooked yellow bill, a bare, bright red head and neck, black glossy plumage edged with brown, and a meager body about thirty inches in length. The nest, with three dirty white, chocolate-speckled eggs, is placed in a hollow stump, or on the ground like that of a turkey. A smaller species, the black vulture, performs a similar service in South America. The buzzard is a serviceable, but necessarily a revolting bird. In its flight only, the buzzard is admirable. Whether coursing with soft wing and keen eye in search of food, or soaring aloft in graceful spirals, the buzzard's flight is the poetry of motion. Buzzards see a long distance. Should a buzzard discover a carcass, his dropping would be noted by some distant neighbor, who would hurry to the scene, noticed in turn by others, and these by others still further off, until, in an incredibly short time, a large assemblage had gathered. Travelers on the plains state that saddle and bridle cannot be removed from a spent horse before a circle of impatient buzzards has formed, even though not one was in sight a moment before. See Vulture; Condor; Parsees