The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1891-08-01
THE TURKEY BUzZARD.
SOME THINGS ABOUT A COM
MON YET UNFAMILIAR BIRD.
The Real Name for This UntIdy Bird Is
the Great North American vulture
A but His Popular Name
VIII Never Change.

The great North American vulturc.
popularity known us the turkey buzz
gard, belongs with the vultures and not
with the true buzzards. It's large
black body. red head and unfeathered
neck give it. when not In flight suffi-
cient resemblance to the turkey to
make the first part OF it, name some-
what appropriate. Popular names are
proverbially slow to change and our
vulture will probably continue to be
known as the turkey buzzard for con-
turtles TO come.
The habits OF this bird are such as
to make it very useful to man in warm
climates. In many OF our southern
states. 1t 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 un-
used or gully-washed field, and in o
few days little remains but the dried
skin and bones.
1t was for long time an open eues-
ton with naturalists in what way buzz
yards discover their food at long dis
tances; 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 1t is left in open sight. On
the other hand they fly from long dis
tances 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 fifty buzz
yards circling 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 nip at the
carcass. When the supply is at all
adequate to the demand these charm
ing 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.
Instinct teaches buzzards to select
their roosting places in the most
inaccessible spots. In mountainous
and billy sections they make choice of
legdes in rocky cliffs. Their nests are
roughly built of sticks; the eggs are
large of greenish hue with brown
blotches and irregular markings.
Leaving now the consideration of
the terrestrial habits of our vulture,
let us follow it to its aerial domain.
As the swan, awkward and rngainly
on the land, is the most graceful of
swimmers in its proper element so the
buzzard, clumsy and repnlsive on the
ground, reveals itself when on the
wing as the incarnation of grace. Its
fight. above that OF all other birds. is
the perfect poetry OF motion. Even
the kingly eagle cannot lay claim to
the easy grace and the wonderful poise
that characterizes 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 n rapid motion OF his
wings. l have watched three or four
buzzards while returning TO their
roosting place breasting furious
wind-storm high in the air. and though
blown back for time they at last
used their great pinions to a purpose
and pierced the awful front of the
storm with fence that knew no such
word rs fail. 20 me q grander sight
than even the wrath of the gale was
this triumph of wing power over the
elements.
There is reason to accept the asser-
ton of DIR. Cctes in his key to the
Birds OF North America that science
has as yet failed to explain the fight
Of the turkey buzzard. The most xur-
prising featureof its motion is its prog
ress against resistance while soaring
with apparently steady wings. After
few flaps to raise it from the ground
the momentum thus secured seems
sufficient to enable the bird to soar in
widening and rising circles until it
reaches an aitirude of perhaps hall a
mile.
have frequently seen a buzzard cI-
ecute similar, though slower evolutions
when not so much as the faintest zephyr
stirred the leaves in the highest tpns
tops. Though keeping the closest
watch. / failed ito discover by what
means the bird continued to rise The
only exception 10 the steady upward
soaring was an occasional descent on
the gentle incline in order to increase
momentum. This downward motion
however, seemed to me far too slight
and too infrequentlto give the force re-
quired for a long and steady rise ON
stationary wings.
When the coming flying machine
shall astonish waiting world, it may
be that 1t will soar rather than fly. and
that 1t will be modelled in part from
the great black vultrpe, whose magic
evolutions have thus far defied the
theories OF science.