VOL. II. | Andrew Fackson Grayson. | 53 
home before the vultures would be likely to trouble it. But for this _ 
lack of caution I was doomed, as in many other events in my life, 
to disappointment. I was gone about two hours, when, on return- 
ing, I found my game surrounded and covered by a flock of at 
least a dozen vultures, and others still coming. Some so far up in 
the heavens as to appear like a small black speck upon the clear 
blue sky. So busy were they, tearing and devouring the deer and 
fighting among themselves that I approached quite near before they 
saw me, when all arose, some flying a short distance and perching 
upon the rocks and sides of the hill, while others less gorged were 
sailing around taking a bird’s-eye view of the half consumed deer 
and my chagrin. Their greed in feeding upon a carcass and their 
aerial movements remind me of the black vulture (C. afratus), and 
like that bird they have often been known to gorge themselves so 
as to be unable to fly. 
The California vulture. seems to be entirely restricted to the re- 
gions west of the Rocky Mountains and its geographical range does 
not extend as far south as Cape St. Lucas, nor north to Washington | 
Territory. Its flight when ascending is a quick movement of 
the wings and alternate sailing in circles till out of sight. It soars 
to an immense height and is endowed with such a far-seeing eye 
that it is able to discover over a great expanse of territory any 
dead animal which may happen to be exposed to view. * * * * 
- The home of this vulture is amid the clouds and in the wildest 
mountain regions it seeks for a retreat and to repose, usually pre- 
fering to perch upon rocks than upon trees. a 
Kine Vuuture. Sarcoramphus papa (Linn.)—I found it quite 
common on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, more to the Atlantic side, 
however, than the Pacific, and have not seen it except in confine- 
- ment in any of my wanderings in western Mexico. From the best 
— information I could obtain it seems to prefer the wild mountainous 
regions to that of the near vicinity of civilization, and its habits are 
not unlike those of other species of this family except that .it is a 
little more particular in the selection of its food. It is rather slug- 
 gish and flies heavily. * * * *  Incrossing the Isthmus in 
1857 and near the Magonia River, we frightened up five or six of 
these vultures which were feeding upon a dead horse, one of. 
- them which perched upon a neighboring tree was shot and proved 
| to be a fine specimen, but for want of conveniences we were un-— 
