That these birds may be fitted for powerful flight they are provided with long and pointed wings, the second and third quills being the longest. They have a stout bill, with a very long hook and sharp end. Their feathers are oily to resist water, those of the head being lengthened and pointed, and of the thighs and a little of the front parts of the tarsi short and close together. The legs, tarsi and feet are very strong and robust, and the claws all of the same length and very large and sharp. Rough scales completely invest the tarsi, and the toes are padded below and covered with numerous hard-pointed projections to aid in holding their slippery prey. The iris in some specimens is reddish, but mostly yellow; the bill and claws blue-black, and the tarsi and toes grayish-blue. Male birds are not so large as the females, the latter measuring twenty-five inches in length, and with an extent of wings of fifty-two inches. TURKEY BUZZARD. Few species, if any, have a wider distribution in America than the Turkey Buzzard. It is found more or less abundantly to the Saskatchewan throughout North America, from the Atlantic to the Pacific Coast, and in all portions of South America as far south as the Strait of Magellan. Individuals have been met with in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, though these birds are generally not common north of Central New Jersey. From Eastern Maine, in the neighborhood of Calais, to Connecticut, specimens have occasionally been captured. In a single instance, Mr. Lawrence observed a small company of nine at Rockaway, Long Island. West of the Alleghenies, from Central America nearly to the Arctic regions, it occurs more abundantly. Without exception, it is found in greater or less numbers in all the Middle, Western, Southern and North-western States. From Lower California to Washington, along the Pacific, numerous parties attest to its common occurrence. The West Indies, the islands of Cuba, Jamaica and Trinidad, the last-named in particular, include it within their faunæ. Honduras and Guatemala, as well as the Falkland Islands, off the eastern coast of Patagonia, are permanent residing-places.