2 RED-HEADED TURKEY VULTURE
This species is far from being known throughout the United States,
for it has never been seen farther eastward than the confines of New
Jersey. None, I believe, have been observed in New York; and on asking
about it in Massachusetts and Maine, I found that, excepting those
persons acquainted with our birds generally, none knew it. On my late
northern journeys I nowhere saw it. A very few remain and spend the
winter in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, where I have seen them only
during summer, and where they breed. As we proceed farther south, they
become more and more abundant. They are equally attached to maritime
districts, and the vicinity of the sea-shore, where they find
abundance of food.
The Turkey-Buzzard was found in abundance on the Rocky Mountains
and along the Columbia river by LEWIS and CLARK, as well as
subsequently by Mr. TOWNSEND, although it is said by Mr. DAVID DOUGLAS
to be extremely rare on the north-west coast of America. On the Island
of Galveston in Texas, where it is plentiful, we several times found
its nest, as usual, on the ground, but on level parts of salt marshes,
either under the widespread branches of cactuses, or among tall grass
growing beneath low bushes, on which Herons of different species also
bred, their young supplying a plentiful store of food for those of the
Vultures. The eggs, which never exceed two in number, measure two
inches and seven-eighths in length, and one inch and seven and a half
eighths in their greatest breadth.
The flight of the Turkey-Buzzard is graceful compared with that of
the Black Vulture. It sails admirably either high or low, with its
wings spread beyond the horizontal position, and their tips bent
upward by the weight of the body. After rising from the ground, which
it does at a single spring, it beats its wings only a very few times,
to enable it to proceed in its usual way of sailing. Like the Black
Vultures, they rise high in the air, and perform large circles, in
company with those birds, the Fork-tailed Hawk, Mississippi Kite, and
the two species of Crow. The Hawks, however, generally teaze them, and
force them off toward the ground.
They are gregarious, feed on all sorts of food, and suck the eggs
and devour the young of many species of Heron and other birds. In the
Floridas, I have, when shooting, been followed by some of them, to
watch the spot where I might deposit my game, which, if not carefully
covered, they would devour. They also eat birds of their own species,
when they find them dead. They are more elegant in form than the Black
Vultures, and walk well on the ground or the roofs of houses. They are
daily seen in the streets of the southern cities, along with their
relatives, and often roost with them on the same trees. They breed on
the ground, or at the bottom of hollow trees and prostrate trunks, and
lay only two eggs. These are large, of a light cream-colour, splashed
toward the great end with large irregular markings of black and brown.
The young somewhat resemble those of the Black Vulture, and take a
long time before they can fly. Both species drink water freely, and in
doing this immerse their bill to the base, and take a long draught at
a time. They both breed at the same period, or nearly so, and raise
only one brood in the season.
I have found birds of this species apparently very old, with the
upper parts of their mandibles, and the wrinkled skin around their
eyes, so diseased as to render them scarcely able to feed amongst
others, all of which seldom failed to take advantage of their
infirmities. I have represented the adult male in full plumage, along
with a young bird, procured in the autumn of its first year. The
average weight of a full grown bird is 6 1/2 lbs., about 1 lb. less
than that of the Carrion Crow.
CATHARTES AURA, Bonap. Syn., p. 22. CATHARTES AURA, TURKEY-VULTURE, Rich. & Swains., F. Bor. Amer., vol. ii. p. 4. TURKEY-VULTURE or TURKEY-BUZZARD, Nuttall, Man., vol. ii. p. 43. TURKEY-BUZZARD, Cathartes Aura, Aud., vol. ii. p. 296; vol. v. p. 339.
In the adult, the head and upper part of the neck are destitute of
feathers, having a red wrinkled skin, sparsely covered with short
black hair, and downy behind. Feathers of the neck full and rounded
concealing the naked crop. Wings ample, long; the first quill rather
short, the third and fourth longest. Tail longish, rounded, of twelve
broad straight feathers.
Bill at the tip yellowish-white; the cere and the naked part of the
head of a tint approaching to blood-red. Iris dark brown. Feet flesh-coloured,
tinged with yellow; claws black. The general colour of the plumage is
blackish-brown, deepest on the neck and under parts, the wing-coverts
broadly margined with brown; the back glossed with brown and greenish
tints; the tail purplish-black; the under parts of a sooty brown, on
the breast glossed with green.
Length 32 inches; extent of wings 6 feet 4 inches; bill 2 1/2 along
the ridge, 2 2/12 along the gap; tarsus 2 1/2, middle toe 3 1/2.
Young fully fledged.
The bill is, of course, shorter and more slender, its horny tip
pale blue, black on the back; the skin of the head is flesh-coloured,
the iris yellowish, the feet flesh-coloured. The plumage is nearly of
the same colour as in the adult.
The olfactory nerve has been ascertained in the mammalia to be the
instrument of smell; but in the class of birds, experiments and
observations are wanting to determine its precise function, although
analogy would lead us to suppose it to be the same in them. So
inaccurate have observers been in this matter, that some of them have
mistaken the large branch of the fifth pair, which traverses the nasal
cavity, for the olfactory nerve. The experiments instituted upon
Vultures shew that not only are they not led to their prey by the
sense of smell, but also that they are not made sensible by it of the
presence of food when in their immediate proximity. Yet, if the
olfactory nerve be really the nerve of smell, and if a large expansion
of the nasal membrane be indicative of an extension of the faculty,
one would necessarily infer that Vultures must possess it in a high
degree. On the other hand, however, the organ and the nerves being
found to be equally developed in birds, such as Geese and Gallinaceous
species, which have never been suspected of being guided by smell when
searching for food, it would seem to follow that the precise function
of this nerve, and the nasal cavities, has not yet been determined in
birds. That the nasal passages must be subservient to some other
purpose than that of respiration merely, is evident from their
complexity, but what that purpose is, remains to be determined by
accurate observations and experiments.
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