CALIFORNIAN VULTURE. 39 



the half of these feathers, are white in tlie male, so that the wino- 

 appears in this sex ornamented with a large white patch. The 

 tail is wedge-shaped, rather short, and blackish in both sexes. The 

 feet are very stout, of a greyish blue, and ornamented with vrhite 

 wrinkles ; the nails are blackish, but Utile crooked, and very long ; 

 the 4 toes are connected by a very loose but strongly marked mem- 

 brane 5 the 4tli toe is very small, and the nail more curved. 



Total length, 2 to 3 feet 2 lines (French measure) ; bill 1 inch 10 

 lines ; extent of the wings about 9 feet and a half our measure ; 

 the tail about 1 foot 2 inches ; intermediate or longest toe, with the 

 nail, near half a foot. The measurements of this bird have been 

 greatly exaggerated ; an individual, in the Leverian Museum in Eng- 

 land, is said to have extended, from the end of the wings, 13 feet 

 1 inch (French measure.) Desmarchais gave it a stretch of 18 feet, 

 and adds, that the excessive magnitude of its wings hindered it from 

 entering into the forests ! It always, however, from choice, perches 

 on the ground, or on elevated rocks, its talons, by their situation, not 

 affording it a sufficient support on the branches of trees. 



CALIFORNIAN VULTURE. 



{ Cathartes californianus, Kxy:z. Bonaparte, Annal. Lye. vol.11, 

 p. 22. Cath.artes viilturimis, Temm. Vultur cali/ornianus, 

 Latham. Shaw's Naturalist's Miscellany, vol. ix. p. 301.) 



Spec. Charact. — Blackish : feathers of the collar and breast lanceo- 

 late ; the wings reaching much beyond the tail. 



This bird which Menzies brought from California, 

 and deposited in the British Museum, seems, according 

 to Latham, to have some affinity with the Condor, and 

 almost equals it in size. Considering the great predi- 

 lection all this part of the Vulture section (Cathartes) 

 have for temperate regions, seeking out, in the warmer 

 latitudes, the high Andes for their favorite abode, we 

 may naturally enough expect to meet with this species 

 in some part of the extensive range of the Rocky Moun- 

 tains ; and indeed we are by no means certain but that 

 the Vulture met with by Lewis and Clarke may, in fact, 



