The Adventures of Ol' Mistah Buzzard

by Thornton W. Burgess

Haven't read one of these in a long time. It was fun, an engaging little story and I actually learned something new. In Ol' Mistah Buzzard, the little animals of the Green Meadows are nervous. There's a large bird circling high overhead which they don't recognize. They do admire how he can stay aloft for ages without flapping his wings (some call this 'lazy') but fear him as a bird of prey. Turns out it is a visiting buzzard (aka turkey vulture) from 'Ole Virginny' and when the possum hears the vulture is nearby, he hurries out to welcome his friend. As soon as Unc' Billy Possum explains that Mr. Buzzard is harmless, the other animals relax. Peter Rabbit is very curious about the visitor. It's springtime and all the other birds are building nests to rear their young. Peter figures the vultures, being such large birds, must have a huge nest that's easy to find. So he goes looking for it- but is surprised when he can't find any nest evident where the vulture pair (Mrs. Buzzard having arrived at this point) are hanging around, even with obvious hints that they do have a pair of eggs. Sammy Jay helps him discover where the vultures have their nesting site, though he plays a trick on him first- as he's rather affronted that the rabbit keeps asking impertinent questions and poking his nose into matters that others want to keep secret.

So the main moral of the story is: mind your own business and respect others' privacy. Also, things aren't always what they seem. I did find it a little annoying that at the start of each chapter, the author reiterated what had occurred in the prior chapter, but as he meant these as bedtime stories for children, I bet this saved many a parent from having to remind their kid what was going on in the story. It got less prevalent further into the book. Also, the last two chapters felt tacked on, jumping suddenly from the current storyline of Peter trying to learn where the vultures nested, to Peter and a bluebird talking, wherein Peter learns another fact about how the vultures live. Felt like it was just a way for the author to add another snippet of info. I didn't mind too much.

As you can tell by the publication date, this story is dated and it shows in the language. While most of the animals speak "regular English" (as my kid would say), the vulture visiting from 'Down South' has a heavy drawl which is kind of cringe-worthy. I was able to take it in stride, even find a bit of humor in it, but there are newer editions where I think some of that language has been modernized- see the cover image depicted for example.

Rating: 3/5             192 pages, 1919