Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XVI.djvu/75

 TUKKEY BUZZARD (rhinogryphus) aura (Illig.). It is about 2 ft. long aud 6 ft. in extent of wings ; the bill is long and comparatively slender, with an arched, strong tip ; a large soft cere, two thirds the length of the bill, in which the pervious nos- trils are placed; wings long and pointed, the third and fourth quills nearly equal and longest ; tail moderate and nearly even ; tarsi short, plumed below the knee, and with small scales ; toes weak, united by a small membrane, hind one short and weak, and claws strong; head and neck naked, no fleshy crest, and the plu- mage black. All the vultures which have the nostrils horizontal and perforate, with a basal web between the middle and inner toes, belong to the new world. The color is brownish black, with a purplish lustre, darkest on the back and upper part of tail, and some pale edgings ; bill yellowish; head and neck bright red, with a few scattered hair-like feathers and wrinkled ekin ; plumage commencing on the neck with Tmrkey Buzzard (Cathartes aura). a circular ruff of prominent feathers. It is found all over North America, except the arctic regions, going on the Pacific coast as far N. as the British possessions, but on the Atlantic rarely seen N. of New Jersey ; but it is most abundant in the southern states, migrating thither from the colder parts. It is essentially a carrion eater, though it will devour any kind of fresh meat, and even small living mammals, birds, and reptiles ; it has been known to at- tack and kill weak and sickly animals in the fields. It associates in flocks of 25 to 30, even when not feeding, becoming very familiar in the southern cities, where it devours any car- rion or animal filth left in the streets. It finds out its prey at a great distance, and sails for miles without apparent effort, with the tips of the wings bent upward by the weight of the body; it is often seen in company with the black vulture, hawks, kites, and crows; it is also a good walker. Its average weight is 6^ Ibs., which is somewhat less than that of the 801 VOL. xvi. 5 TURKISH LANGUAGE, &c. 63 black vulture. It is fond of particular roosting places, generally high and dead cypresses in deep swamps ; it is very sensitive to cold, and liable to disease about the eyes and legs in the shape of warts and excrescences ; when alarmed or provoked it utters a loud hissing noise. In the southern states the breeding season begins early in February, the nest being usually placed in the hollow of a dead tree, or, it is said, even on the ground, and containing two eggs, 2-J by 2 in., light cream-colored, with black and brown marks ; both sexes incubate, each feed- ing the other and the young with the disgorged contents of the stomach; incubation lasts 32 days ; only one brood is raised yearly. TURKISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. The languages spoken by the different tribes of Turkish or Tartar origin form a principal di- vision of the great Uralo-Altaic or Turanian family, of which the chief common character- istics have been pointed out under TURANIAN RACE AND LANGUAGES. They constitute to- gether a well marked group of nearly related idioms ; even the Yakut the one which differs most from the rest, and is supposed to have severed itself from the main stem before the division of the latter into its other branches is so distinctly a Turkish language that its relationship is apparent upon the most super- ficial examination; and it has been asserted, though with questionable accuracy, that a Ya- kut from the Lena could make himself passably understood at Constantinople. The Tartar dia- lects are for the most part known only by scanty vocabularies and the descriptions of travellers ; a few have been treated grammat- ically ; three or four, as the Uigur, the Jagatai or oriental Turkish, and the Osmanli, have re- ceived literary culture, and are to be studied in writtan monuments. Of these last, the dia- lect of the tribe which has been for 500 years dominant in European and Asiatic Turkey, or the Osmanli Turkish, as it is distinctively called, is of by far the greatest importance, and to it we shall chiefly direct our attention. Its peculiarities are such as naturally result from its position and its culture under the powerful influence of Arabic and Persian ; every part of its vocabulary, and even some departments of its grammar, are filled with Arabic and Persian elements; so that it pre- sents the remarkable and unique spectacle of a dialect made up of materials derived from the three grand and totally disconnected families of language, the Turanian, Semitic, and Aryan or Indo-European, to the detriment, of course, of its native character, by the corruption of its forms and the artificiality of ita style. This is true especially of the language taught in the grammars and written in the literature ; the vernacular idiom of the people is a much purer Turkish. The Osmanli is usually written with the Arabic alphabet, which is exceedingly ill suited to it, as to the Persian, since it marks the vowels very imperfectly, and in its dis- tinction of consonantal sounds is in part de-