Turkey buzzard

“ The turkey-buzzard is, upon the whole, a nobler bird than the black vulture. There is more of the eagle about him. Both, it is true, are carrion-feeders, like all vultures; but the buzzard also hunts after other food, such as snakes, lizards, and small quadrupeds. He will attack young lambs or pigs, when a good opportunity offers. So, too, will the black vulture, but not so frequently. Neither of them, however, do much harm in this respect; and their preying on such animals is an exception, and not a rule. They only do so, probably, when driven to it by hunger. ”

“ The turkey-buzzard is a solitary bird, or at most goes in pairs. It may at once be recognised from a long distance, by its lofty, soaring, and most elegant flight. It is well known to be a true carrion-feeder. ”

“ On the other hand, the mother in the turkey buzzard is so evenly balanced against the vulture in her that I have known a brooding bird to be so upset by the sudden approach of a man as to rise from off her eggs and devour them instantly, greedily, and make off on her serenely soaring wings into the clouds. ”

“ But I think the turkey buzzard furnishes us the most convincing proof of birds using their nostrils to locate their food, for we actually know that they will come for miles and miles, not to carrion, but to freshly killed beef.
Now here is a fact for you to analyze: One Sunday morning last June I got up at the week-day hour and took a stroll back to the north pond. For some unaccountable reason I forgot to take feed to the family of young pet ducks that were about four weeks old. ”

“ There are no two birds, not absolutely of the same species, that are more like each other than a turkey-buzzard and a small-sized turkey-hen—that is, the common domestic turkey of the black variety, which, like the buzzard, is usually of a brownish colour. ”

“ They belong to the great army of nature's dustmen, just like the jackals and the hyenas. For by destroying these carcasses before they can putrefy, they help to keep the air pure. In the cities of the Southern United States and of the tropics our small American vulture, the turkey-buzzard, is really depended upon as a scavenger.
How vultures find the dead body of an animal is just a little doubtful. Some naturalists have thought that they find it by means of sight, and others that they do so by means of smell. ”

“ Except when he is gorged with eating, he will never allow the hunter to approach within shot; and even then, his thick heavy plumage renders him most difficult to be killed. His wings are full and long, and his flight is most graceful and easy, not unlike that of his congener the turkey-buzzard.
“I have said,” continued Lucien, “that naturalists make out five species of American vultures. The remaining two, the turkey-buzzard and black vulture, or, as he is sometimes called, the ‘carrion-crow,’ we have already had before us ”

“ The Carrion Crow and Turkey Buzzard possess great power of recollection, so as to recognise at a great distance a person who has shot at them, and even the horse on which he rides. ”

“ The sealers say that the flesh of these birds, when cooked, is quite white, and very good eating; but bold must the man be who attempts such a meal.
We have now only to mention the turkey-buzzard (Vultur aura) , and the Gallinazo. The former is found wherever the country is moderately damp, from Cape Horn to North America. Differently from the Polyborus Brasiliensis and Chimango, it has found its way to the Falkland Islands. ”

“ Ice sometimes forms in the shallower bays, but seldom lasts. Many are the water birds, gulls and divers, and flamingoes, and a kind of heron, besides eagles and hawks, though the big so-called turkey buzzard of the lower country does not seem to come so high, and the huge condor is no longer frequent. There are plenty of fish, but apparently of two genera only, the species (eight are enumerated) being most of them known only in this lake and in Lake Poopo, into which it discharges. ”

“ There are turkey buzzards in countless thousands hovering over the city, which greatly alarm the natives. Such flocks were never seen before. The timid and superstitious natives predict the most awful visitations from the sudden appearance of so many buzzards, which darken the air like a cloud with their hideous presence. Some of the natives prognosticate a famine, or others fatal convulsions of nature. ”

“ John Bachman and myself have begun a second series of experiments, such as I made before, connected with the nose-smelling of Turkey Buzzards; as far as we have gone through them, these experiments have proved perfectly satisfactory to my good friend and myself, and depend [upon] it, from next Wednesday, the American World will know that Turkey Buzzards are first, Gregarious, as well as the Carrion Crow [Black Vulture] , that they eat fresh meat in preference to putrid stuff; that they eat birds, fresh killed, either plucked or not, even of their own species ”

“ Except these creatures, and these by no means frequently seen, he rarely meets with animated objects: at a distance the harsh voice of the crow is often heard, or flocks of them are observed in the cleared fields, while now and then the buzzard, or turkey-vulture, may be seen wheeling in graceful circles in the higher regions of the air, sustained by his broadly-expanded wings, which apparently remain in a state of permanent and motionless extension. ”

“ Turkey buzzards, coming up from the south, act as scavengers during the summer months. Immense flocks of passenger pigeons, buntings, grosbeaks, attack the ripening fruits and the wild rice of the swamps. ”

“ The climate is very moist, and it has been facetiously remarked that it rains here eight days in the week. One cannot speak approvingly of the sanitary condition of a place where turkey buzzards are depended upon to remove the garbage which accumulates in the thoroughfares. ”

“ Of shell-fish, I saw oysters only, which are roasted in the shell at market, and consumed by the negroes with great avidity. Upon the roofs of the market houses sat a number of buzzards, who are supported by the offals. It is a species of vulture, black, with a naked head. Seen from a distance they resemble turkeys, for which reason they are denominated turkey-buzzards. They are not only suffered as very useful animals, but there is a fine of five dollars for the killing of one of these birds. ”

“ The animal is habitually incautious, and when attacked seems to possess little power of resistance; literally suffering itself to be eaten alive by the turkey-buzzards, while it lies on its side and protests against the proceeding by a succession of grunts. Exceedingly tenacious of life, it will survive a vigorous crunching by the dogs, when it seems as though every bone in its body had been cracked. ”

“ The weather is heavy and dark and is very injurious to young turkeys. That is the time you must keep your coops good and dry and give plenty of green stuff, with aconite in the drinking water about twice a week to keep down any fever. Three drops in a pint of water is all I give them as aconite is very poisonous. If you have any sting nettle at the time be sure to feed it, as sting nettle is one of the greatest aids to success in raising young turkeys.
When the turkey dies of blackhead the crop becomes apparently black and inflamed, and is very foul. ”

“ In the southern part of the United States there is little need for well-built turkey houses, but during damp, cold, or stormy weather the turkeys should have protection of some kind. They should not be exposed to dampness, but they can stand a considerable amount of dry cold. ”

“ A rattlesnake may look dead as last year's leaves, he may lie so still that even the buzzard—in the sky—is deceived, and yet he can spring straight out of his dark, wicked dreams and bury his hypodermic needles, filled with as deadly a poison as a scientist can concoct in his laboratory, in the exact spot of man's flesh he chooses. The heat waves danced and spiraled in the air, the rocks grew too hot to touch, and still the serpents lay in their heat trance, wholly content. And lastly, the buzzards had no complaint with the drought. ”

“ No bird on earth can boast of more or a greater variety of enemies than the wild turkey. The chief of them all is the genus Homo, with his sundry and sure methods of destruction. After man comes a host of wild beasts and birds, including the lynx, coyote, wolf, fox, mink, coon, skunk, opossum, rat, both golden and white-headed eagles, goshawk, Cooper's and other hawks, horned owl, crow, etc., all of whom prey more or less upon the poor birds from the egg to maturity. There is never a moment in the poor turkey's life that eternal vigilance is not the price of its existence. ”

“ There were other hells upon earth where the men were beaten and starved, robbed of the money sent them from home, robbed of their parcels, frozen in the winter and overdriven in the summer until they died, either from sheer collapse or from one of the many diseases that a dirty country breeds.
People who have no special knowledge of Turkey-in-Asia hardly realize what the winter is like there. The last winter we were in Afion snow fell at the end of November and did not melt until the middle of March. ”

“ Turkeys given poor shelter, and kept in filthy quarters, are subject to roup.
Symptoms:—Roup develops either slowly or rapidly, with the general signs of a bad cold in the head, such as wheezing, or sneezing, high fever and great thirst. The discharge from the eyes and nose is yellowish, being at first thin but growing thicker as the disease develops, and very offensive, closing the eyes, nostrils and throat (these parts and the whole head are swollen, sometimes enormously, so that blindness ensues, making the turkey unable to get its food, and thus hastening the decline of the system) ”

“ After they begin to roost, young turkeys need no shelter in the spring and summer. When chilly nights come in the fall, late-hatched turkeys may do better housed than in the open. Turkeys that are well grown and fully feathered do not need to be under cover in the winter except in protracted or very severe storms. Turkey growers who wish to have the birds partially under control, and want to be able to catch any one when they need it, often have the birds roost in a shed or other outbuilding available for the purpose. ”

“ So that, in my Nomenclature of other Creatures, ’tis not fit I should omit my Hog, which made my House to be mightily frequented by the Asiaticks. They came thick and three-fold to see that Creature, which is counted unclean by them, and by the Books of their Religion they are forbid to eat it, so that, it being a prohibited Animal among them, they never saw one before. Yea, all Turks are as much afraid to touch a Hog, as Christians are to come near to those who are infected with the Plague. ”

“ This mackerel is the fish that in spring-time migrates from the Mediterranean, where it has spawned, into the Black Sea, and is in such an emaciated condition that the expression "thin as a tchiros" is used in Turkey to designate a person of extreme leanness. Nevertheless, it is caught and dried in the sun in such large quantities that the fields over which they are suspended look blue from a distance. They are sold by the pair, or "married couples," as the vendors cry out, and are grilled, shredded, and prepared into salad with oil and vinegar, and the tender leaves of the cummin (tereot) . ”

“ The creatures of the barn yard contend with the storm in [Pg 312] different ways. When the cattle and horses are driven out to be watered they turn their backs to the pelting wind and rain and drift to the nearest shelter. The turkeys, on the contrary, stand and face the storm with their heads huddled down on their breasts at the point where the carver inserts the fork. The turkey, by the way, is the true weathercock. When roosting in the open he invariably faces the wind. ”

“ STARTS WITH A COMMON COLD Treatment of a Common Cold. Blackhead starts from a common cold. When you have a bird in your flock afflicted with a cold, place a small teaspoonful of Epsom Salts to one gallon of water. Do this three or four days in succession and put plenty of lime around your turkey houses. I put lime on the droppings boards every day; it will kill the disease in no time and do no injury to the turkey. Of course I put clean straw in my turkey house in damp weather every other day as the straw becomes damp and is very liable to breed disease. ”

“ Never a sound broke the silence that brooded forever—in spite of the wind—over the lake-like, flattened expanse of the estuary save the deep "how-how!" of the buzzard's superb pinions as she climbed slowly into the sublime vault of the heavens; never a sound from bird or from beast. The beast hung on, dumbly dogged, with fangs that met in the flesh beneath the stained feathers; and the blood of the bird mingled with the blood of the beast as it trickled slowly down over his mangled head, upon which one fearful claw of the buzzard was clutched in an awful grip. ”

“ They might also be told the reasons why high-heeled boots, constricted waists, unwashed skins, accumulations of refuse, and many other things, are injurious to health as well as opposed to comfort."
How Buzzards find their Prey.—On the debated question as to the particular sense by which turkey-vultures are directed to their prey from great distances, Mr. Samuel N. Rhoads brings strong evidence in the "American Naturalist" in favor of the sense of smell. In digging some sweet-potatoes, he partly uncovered a spot where a horse and cow had been buried some years before. ”

“ Dense fogs obscure the air during the winter, by the assistance of which the Turkish vessels continually mistake the entrance of a valley called the False Bogaz for the entrance of the Bosporus, and are wrecked there perpetually. I have seen dead bodies floating about in that part of the sea, where I first became acquainted with the fact that the corpse of a woman floats upon its back, while that of a man floats upon its face. In short, at Constantinople they say that every thing that is bad comes from [18] the Black Sea: the plague, the Russians, the fogs, and the cold, all come from thence ”