THE CALIFORNIA VULTURE 



{PSEUDOGRYPHUS CALIFORNIANUS) 



rriHIS magnificent bird, with a spread of wing 

 -^ exceeding even that of the Condor, upwards 

 of ten feet, is another New World species which 

 seems threatened with speedy extermination. As 

 Mr. Lucas writes : " The threatened extermination 

 of the Californian Vulture is indirectly, rather 

 than directly, due to the agency of man, for its 

 suspicious nature has ever rendered this bird 

 difficult to capture, while the breeding-places are 

 in out-of-the-way and often inaccessible localities, 

 and although the Mexican miners of Lower 

 California are said to kill the bird on every 

 possible opportunity, in order that they may use 

 the quills as receptacles for gold dust, the destruc- 

 tion thus caused would naturally be but small. 

 The free use of strychnine in ridding the cattle 

 ranches of wolves and coyotes has caused the 



disappearance of this bird, which has been 



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