310 BULLETIN OF THE 



VULTUEID^J. 



79 * Cathartes aura Ittiger. Turkey Vulture. 

 Vultur brasiliensis Brisson, Orn., I, 468, 17G0. 

 Vultur aura Linne, Syst. Nat., I. 122, 1767. — Vieillot, Ois. Am. Sept., I, 25, 



pi. 2 bis, 1807. —Wilson, Am. Orn., IX, pi. lxiv, fig. 1, 1814. 

 Cathartes aura Illiger, Prodromus, 283, 1811. — Bonaparte, Ann. N. Y. 



Lye. Nat. Hist., II, 23, 1828. — Audubon, Orn. Biog., II, 296, pl.clii, 1835. 



— Bonaparte, Gcog. and Comp. List, I, 1838. — D'Orbigny, Voy. dans 

 l'Amer. Merid., IV, ill, 38, 1844. — Cassis, Proc. Phil. Acad. Nut. Sci., 

 1849, 159. —Bonaparte, Consp. Gen. Av., I, 9, 1850. 



Vultur jot a Molina, Saggio sul stor. nat. del Chile, 1782. 



Cathartes nificolUs Spix, Av. Spec. Nova:, 2, 1824. 



Vultur jota Molina, Sagg. sul stor. nat. del Chile, 235, 1782. — Gmelin, Syst. 



Nat., I, 347, 1788. 

 Cathartes jota Bonaparte, Consp. Gen. Av., I, 9, 1850. — Cassin, U. S. Nav. 



Astr. Exp., II. 172, 1855. 

 Cathartes septentrionalis Pr. Maximilian, Rcise in das Nord-Amer., 1, 162, 1839. 

 ? Cathartes Burrovianus Cassin, Proc. Phil. Acad. Nat. Sciences, 1843, 212. 



— ? Cassin, Baud's Birds of N. Am., 6, 1858. 



Abundant. Collect in large companies about the dead alligators so 

 numerous in the St. John's River. 



Both this species and the following ( Carthartes atratus) paid us fre- 

 quent visits at our camps at Enterprise and Hawkinsville, and whenever 

 we left them they did not fail to gather up and devour the carcasses of 

 the birds and mammals thrown away by us after skinning. We found 

 them, in fact, rather troublesome neighbors, since on more than one 

 occasion they proceeded, in our absence, to investigate the character of 

 the specimens we had left in the sun to dry, and in a manner so unsat- 

 isfactory to ourselves that one of the party was frequently obliged to 

 stay in camp to protect them while the others were away collecting. 



Both this and the following species were represented as breeding 

 late in the season, and as frequenting the palmetto swamps as well 

 as some of the islands above Enterprise for this purpose. 



The synonymy hero given of the present and following species indicates 

 clearly tin- confusion which several continental European authors have in- 

 troduced through their descriptions of these species, to which attention has 

 been previously called by Mr. Cassin.* While a Vultur (or Cathartes) aura 

 has been described by most authors who have written of the two species 

 in question, the name aura has been applied sometimes to the one and 



• Proc. Phil. Acad. Nat Sci., 1849, 159. 



