1922.] TRINIDAD BIRDS. 177 



Family CATHARTIDAE Vultures. 



83. Coragypsfoetens Wied. Black Vulture, or Black Corbeau 

 Cathartes foetens. Leotaud No. 3. 



These scavengers are one of the most conspicuous objects or the 

 towns in Trinidad — to which however they are by no means confined 

 — and their antics when drying themselves in the sun after heavy 

 rain are well worth watching. 



The question is sometimes raised as to whether these big birds of 

 prey hunt by sight or smell. While there is no doubt whatever that 

 sight is the chief sense which draws them to their food from a 

 distance — particularly by watching the movements of others of their 

 own kind — the following observations are of interest. 



Hart (Bull. Dept. Agr. II. 155) records that these birds used to 

 collect in the morning hours on trees near a plant of Aristolochia 

 gigas V. Sturtevantii which was flowering and has a particularly 

 strong odour. 



On September 20, 1918 I observed large numbers of this bird 

 collected on and around a field in the Naparimas which had been 

 experimentally manured with liquid slaughter-house refuse which, 

 though invisible, could be smelled a quarter of a mile away. 



Another observation that I made — although not in Trinidad — 

 was that they quickly found the dead body of an animal that I laid 

 close to the trunk of a thick tree — quite invisible from above. 



I have records of this bird nesting on the following occasions. 



(1) On December 19, 1917 a pair were beginning to nest 



inside the base of a hollow tree on La Fortunee sugar 

 estate. On February 1, i9i8 there were tv/o eggs, one of 

 which contained an almost fully developed young. 



(2) On May 22, 1918 two young birds, downy white with the 



beginning of black feathers, were found between two 

 buttress roots of a tree stump about a hundred yards 

 from the previous locality. 



(3) On November 23, j 91 8 a pair appeared to be nesting on 



the rocks opening out of the roof of the big cave at 

 Gasparee, but the spot was inaccessible and I cannot say 

 if eggs or young v/ere present. 



(4) On February 24, 1919 Mr. P. Jarvis reported having found 



a pair of young in the downy white stage on a small cliff 

 just south of San Fernando. 



The egg is ovate, dull creamy white, spotted and blotched sepia ; 

 some eggs are unmarked. 



