This theory is not very clear, and requires demonstration before it can be accepted as the true one.

Others say that he is carried up by the impetus he has already obtained, by having previously descended from an equal or greater height.

This is not true, however, as the buzzard may be often seen to rise in this way after a long flight along the level line.

It is just possible that the same principle by which the New Holland savages direct their boomerangs, or by which flat stones thrown horizontally often take an upward direction--a fact known to every boy--I say it is just possible that this principle, as yet but little understood, may be instructively acted on by the buzzard, and have something to do with his flight.

Be the facts as they may, it is an interesting sight to watch one of these birds, with broad wings outlined against the blue background of the heavens, now swimming in circles, now shooting off in horizontal lines, and anon soaring upward or tracing the undulating curves of the ogee.
It is, to say the least of it, a striking and beautiful sight.
The turkey-buzzard is, upon the whole, a nobler bird than the black vulture.