The Buzzard by T. H. Jeys

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jul 8, 1913

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 40, No. 26.

The Buzzard

By T. H. Jeys

THE turkey-buzzard is a bird of wide range and habitat. From the far North to the extreme South he is to be found. He flies high, describing great circles in the air. This is not, as some might suppose, to behold the beauties of nature, but to find the decomposing bodies of dead animals upon which he feeds.

How like the buzzard is the gossip! He, too, flies high, and at a distance may be mistaken for some lovely one. He is found in all lands and at all seasons. In some of his lofty flights one might imagine he is thinking great and noble thoughts, but not so. He is seeking something putrefied, rotten, decomposing. Whatsoever things are unholy, or of evil report, if there be any evil or any unpleasantness, he thinks and speaks on these things. Beholding, he becomes changed into the image of what he sees. Coming near him, we can notice that he savors of the material on which he feeds.

The buzzard is a great coward. He does not capture his prey. He waits till it dies. Then he is on hand to feast on the carcass.

So, too, the gossip does his mischief in ambush. No open battle for him! To the face he is fair and open. Behind the back he is venom and evil. Don't be a buzzard. — T. H. Jeys.