[Note: This entry was previously Charleston buzzard.]
Charleston eagle n [In allusion to the buzzards that once haunted the Charleston City Market; see quot 1870] SC joc
= black vulture n.
1870 SC Inst. Premium List 58, Charleston Eagle. This melancholy bird, vulgarly called a buzzard, is one of the peculiar institutions of our beloved metropolis. . . The headquarters of the eagle are in Market street, in the neighborhood of the butchers’ temple. 1889 (1893) Archer Local Reminiscences 18 Charleston SC, The house in places had begun to decay, . . and the grove had become the refuge of that beautiful specimen of the feathered tribe known as the “Charleston Eagle.” 1918 State (Columbia SC) 20 July 8/3, The act makes it lawful to kill the well known “Charleston eagle” which has heretofore been under protection at least by tradition. 1939 AmSp 14.25 [Citadel argot], Charleston Eagle. . . Buzzard (a term fairly general in the up-country of South Carolina, originating in the days when the sanitary facilities of Charleston were limited). 1950 PADS 14.19 SC, Charleston eagle. . . The black vulture. 1966 DARE (Qu. Q13, . . Vulture) Inf SC21, Charleston eagle, nickname for buzzard.