Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1891-08-01
THE TURKEY BUZZARD.
FAMILIAR TALK ABOUT A COMMON
YET UNFAMILIAR BIRD.


derfuI sight and Scent-science Puz-
zled by Its Flights 1t a Model for
the Coming Flying Machine:
The great North American vulture,
popularity known as the turkey buzzard,
belongs with the vultures and not with
the buzzards. Its large black body, red
head, and unfeathered neck give it, when
not in flight sufficient resemblance to the
turkey to make the first part of its name
somewhat appropriate. Popular names
are proverbially slow to change, and our
vulture will probably continue to be
known as the turkey buzzard for centuies
to come.
The habits of this bird are such as to
make it very useful to man in warm eli
mates. In many of our Southern States
it is protected by law on account of its
utility as general scavenger. In that
part of the country farmers seldom bury
their dead cattle and horses, but drag
them away to an unused or gullywashed
field, and in few days little remains but
the dried skin and bones.
When a carcass is first left in open sight,
although no buzzard may be within miles
are seen against the sky, and as they
come nearer are recognized as turkey
buzzards. Meanwhile many others have
approached unseen, and are flying near
the ground in direct line toward the
carcass. Sometimes the birds, discovering
the carrion by their powers of smell only,
fly around the sky in great circles,
shortening at each revolution the radius
of their motion, and slowly descending
until the object of their search comes in
sight.
1t was for long time an open question
with naturalists in what way buzzards
discover their food at long distances;
whether by scent or sight. 1t is now
known that they have both senses highly
developed. They often come many miles
to freshly killed meat before it has begun
to decay, provided it is left in open sight
On the other hand, they fly from long
distances when attracted by offensive
carrion that is entirely concealed from
the eye.
1t is not an uncommon sight in the far
South to see as many as so buzzards cir
cling in the air above the body of dead
horse, COW, or sheep, while the ground
may be black with as many more, each
trying to get a nip at the carcass. When
the supply is at all adequate to the de-
mand these charming epicures gorge
themselves to such an extent upon their
dainty banquet that their flight becomes
heavy and labored, and in extreme cases
they are unable to rise from the ground.
Buzzards usually roost in pairs or in
small companies near the spot where
they have nested. Occasionally, how
ever, they congregate in vast numbers
within a limited space
Instinct teaches buzzards to select for
their roosting places the most inaccessi-
BILE spots. In mountainous and hilly sec
tions they make choice of lodges in rocky
cliffs. Their nests are roughly built of
sticks; the eggs are large of a greenish
hue with brown blotches and irregular
markings.
Leaving now the consideration of the
terrestrial habits of our vulture, let us fol-
low it to its aerial domain. AS the swan,
awkward and ungainly on the land, is the
most graceful of swimmers in its proper
element, SO the buzzard, clumsy and re-
pulsive on the ground, reveals itself when
on the wing as the incarnation of grace.
It's flight, above that of all other birds, is
the perfect poetry of motion. Even the
kingly eagle can not lay claim to the easy
grace and the wonderful poise that char
acterize the flight of this plebeian among
the feathered tribes.
Although spending the greater part of
his time on ,the wing, searching for his
food on the ground while himself in the
air, the buzzard seldom makes violent
or even rapid motion of his wings. On
almost stationary pinions, stretched at
their full expanse, he seems to soar rather
than fly, to sail rather than row. Now
and then he flaps his wings to gain mo-
mentum, but all else is an easy, gliding
sweep And yet, with all this apparent
absence of exertion, his speed is truly
phenomenal. AS you watch his approach
from great distance, at first a mere
speck on the sky, in few moments this
winged magician is passing over your
head with the speed of an express train.
There is reason to accept the assertion
of DR.. Coues in his Key to the Birds of
4NOl III 1AllcilIet, lIttp oNiCiSS iitto yCu
failed to explain the flight of the turkey
buzzard. The most surprising feature
of its motion is its progress against resis-
tance while soaring with apparently
steady wings. After a few flaps to raise
it from the ground the momentum thus
secured seems sufficient to enable
the bird to soar in widening and ris-
ing circles until it reaches an altitude
of perhaps half mile.
When wind is blowing this upward
progress is not difficult to account for.
While moving with the wind the bird ac-
quires a momentum that carries it across
and against the wind, and by setting its
wings at the proper angle it is at the same
time lifted by the air current. This is
sound philosophy; but how are we to
account for its upward progress in dead
calm?
When the coming flying machine shall
astonish a waiting world, it may be that
it will soar rather than fly, and that it
will be modelled in part from the great
black vulture, whose magical evolutions
have thus far defied the theories of sci
cnce.