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From: gp@picuxa.UUCP (Greg Pasquariello X1190)
Newsgroups: sci.bio,rec.birds
Subject: Re: buzzards vs. vultures: there is a difference
Message-ID: <215@picuxa.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 30-Jun-87 08:30:19 EDT
Article-I.D.: picuxa.215
Posted: Tue Jun 30 08:30:19 1987
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In article <3416@well.UUCP>, mo@well.UUCP (Maurice Weitman) writes:
> Speaking about vultures, I've just returned from the Yucatan
> where most of them are black vultures.  Can anyone confirm my
> observation that the black jobbies seem to flap faster and have
> less dihedral than their turkey cousins?  

	Voila!...  You have just posted the most accurate way 
	to distinguish between the two at any given distance.

	By the way, my apologies to the person who said black
	vultures have white heads.  They really have black heads,
	but bright light can make them appear pale gray.  Kind
	of like how a paved road looks whitish.

> 
> (While driving from Merida to Uxmal, we passed a dead horse on
> the side of the road, surrounded by at least a hundred vultures.
> Most of them were sitting on a fence, either waiting their turn
> or digesting it.  It was a stunning sight to see so many of them
> on the ground.  Hitchcock would have enjoyed it.)

	Not to be gross, but I once heard of a cow giving birth
	in south Jersey, where the vultures (blacks) were sitting
	around in the trees waiting for the afterbirth.  Well, the
	infant cow died while still in the birth canal, and the
	vultures commenced eating the infant.