MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 313 



George it was generally common, and sometimes outnumbered the 

 other species, as it did often at Hawkinsville during my stay there. 

 The younger birds appear to be generally not so highly colored as the 

 fully mature, nor to have the naked skin of the head and neck so rugose 

 and corrunculated as the older. The differences in these respects are 

 very considerable between individuals of the same flock. 



A comparison of Florida specimens with Brazilian ones shows that the 

 latter are slightly smaller than the former ; in color or other general fea- 

 tures they do not appear to differ. Most writers have regarded the South 

 American as identical with the North American, but Mr. Cassin,* appar- 

 ently on the authority of Bonaparte,f says the South American bird " is 

 the Vullur brasiliensis Kay," and that " it is considerably smaller, and other- 

 wise quite distinct." But he only refers definitely to the difference in size. 

 The year preceding the publication of these remarks, however, he gives 

 C. atratus as inhabiting Chili. £ In speaking of the Chili specimen, he 

 says : " A single specimen in mature plumage and excellent condition is 

 exactly identical in size arid other characters with the common species 

 [C. atratus^ of the southern parts of North America." He adds: "It is 

 the only specimen presenting this similarity that we have ever seen from 

 South America, and is larger and in other respects different from the allied 

 Catliartes brasiliensis, which is an inhabitant also of that division of this 

 continent." C. atratus, he says, is "not abundant in Chili, though repre- 

 sented to be occasionally met with in the interior " ; these larger individuals 

 referred to being doubtless the birds that inhabit the more elevated dis- 

 tricts. Whatever Mr. Cassin's Cathartes brasiliensis may prove to be, it 

 remains unquestionable that the C. atratus is a general inhabitant of South 

 America, and that Bonaparte's brasiliensis is merely the southern type of 

 this species. The exact parallelism of its range on the two continents as 

 compared with that of C. aura has already been alluded to. 



The Paixtfd or Sacred Vulture ('• Vultur sacra"), § an apocryphal 

 species described by Bartram || as inhabiting Florida, demands in this con- 

 nection a passing notice. Though not identified by any succeeding author 

 (by some, however, it has been referred to the king vulture, Sarcorham- 



* Must. Birds of Cal. and Texas, p. 58. 1856. 

 t Conspectus Generum Avium, Tom I. p 9, I^'jO 

 X V. S. Naval Astronomical Expedition, Vol. II, p. 173, 1855. 

 § Travel, in Florida, etc., p. 150, 1790. 



|| Vullur sacra Baktkam, Travel-, pp. 150, 289, 1791. — Vieillot. — Xcttall, Man. 

 Orn. I, 42. 



SarcorhampliHs sneer Cassin, Must. Birds of Cal. and Texas, 59, 1S5C. 

 See also Bonatakte, Conspectus Gen. Av., I, 9. 



