The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1898-12-01
CARBON BIRDS OF CUBA.
Hideous Turkey Buxzards That Are
Allies of the Army.

A feature of campaigning in Cuba
which has inspired the soldier from the
North with horror and disgust is the
presence of the huge turkey buZzards
on the battlefields. This bird Is per-
haps in appearance and habits the most
loathsome creature of the air known
to this continent It is of right vul-
ture. stands about two and one-half
feet high, and is Of lustrous brown
ish black plumage The hideous part
of the bird is its head and neck, naked
of plumage and reddish, like raw flesh
Below this is a circular ruff OF featn-
ers, which seem to accentuate the re-
voting appearance of the neck. The
bill is long and slender, with pow
erful curved tip for tearing flesh
Carton is the food of the turkey
buzzard, though it will eat fresh meat,
and, when in force, will even kill small
animals or birds. But American sol
diers in Cuba, with their dead lying in
the thick underbrush, know too Well
what the approach of these vultures
means and for them the nauseous birds
form the chief horror Of the war. In
a letter to friend in this city, written
after the fighting at Baiquiri, one OF
the Rough Riders tells Of watching the
buzzards come, and shooting at them
as they settled down to their feast. One
of his company, he adds, who fought as
brave1y as the rest during the battle
went into a. hysterical fit at the APP
proach of one of the birds, and cow
cred away from it, crying like a child.
Other Instances of the soldiers shooting
a he h11D rSc nd Or n o
them away have been related.
Yet there is much to be said on the
side of the carrion birds. They are
our best allies, and as soon as the bat
tie is over their work of sanitation be-
gins. In that hot climate death turks
in the dead and reaches forth for the
living. Close behind death in battle
waits death by pestilence, ready to
claim more victims than shot and shell.
It is here that the vultures perform
their part, terrible to think of, but
very necessary to the army's veal At
ter the battle, friend or foe lie dead
together in the all but impenetrable
chaparral. What the burial parties
cannot find in that tangled underwood,
the instinct Of the vulture discovers.
Far away in the sky distance a black
spot appears. grows larger and sails
along on motionless wings until pres
emily 1t settles down to earth. Others
follow, gathering from all parts of the
compass. They settle in little bands Of
six or eight or even a dozen, and when
they have risen, instead of the intoler-
able and horrible residue of humanity
which lay in the brush, a menace of
pestilence, there remains only a skele-
ton to whiten in the sun and rain.
All through the South the worth of
the turkey buzzard as a scavenger is
well understood. Laws are in force
protecting these birds, and any one
shooting them or wantonly disturbing
them is fined. In the smaller towns
they are the street cleaning depart
ment, and even in cities like Charleston
they stalk about the streets unmolested.
and uttering their harsh, kissing note
New Jersey is as far north as they get
on the Atlantic Coast, but the Southern
States TEEN with them, and in Cuba
they have multiplied raidly in the last
two years. Hideous and foul as they
and their ways are, the Northern SOL
der who shoots them unwittingly COM
mits an offense against the whole army
of invasion, for if there were no turkey
buzzards in Cuba many good Ameri-
can who will return home to tell of his
part in the war would leave his bones
for testimonial to a more deadly foe
than the Spanish. - Chicago Inter
Ocean. ~