FAM. XXX. AMERICAN VULTURES 213 



of the head and neck, and the base of the bill are bright red. 

 The tail rounded and the nostril large and broad. The edges of 

 the glossy-black feathers are brownish. This is a very useful 

 bird, as its only food is dead and decaying animal matter. 

 In southern towns this and the next species are depended upon 

 to keep the streets free from carrion. (Turkey Buzzard.) 



Lengtli, 20-32; wing, 20-24; tail, 10^-12; tar.sus, 2'; culmen, 2^. 

 Temperate North America (and all of South America) from New Jersey, 

 Ohio, and British Columbia south to Patagonia ; breeding and wintering 

 about throughout. 



2. Black Vulture (326. Catkarista atn\ta). — A bird similar 

 to the last, but smaller, stouter, and blacker ; the bare skin 

 of head and neck and 

 base of bill is also 

 blackish. Its heavier 

 weight and shorter 

 wings make it more 

 labored in flight, so 

 the flapping of the 

 wings is more fre- 

 quent. This differ- 

 ence in flying, the rel- 

 atively short, square ^_^ 

 tail, the silvery under 

 surface of the wing 

 quills and the small 

 and narrow nostril 

 will enable any one 

 to distinguish this bird from the last. The black vulture is 

 much more common near the seacoast, and decidedly more 

 abundant in cities and towns. 



Length, 22-27; wing, 16i-17i ; tail, 11-8}; tarsus, 3 ; culmen, 2\. 

 South Atlantic and Gulf States, and southward throughout most of South 

 America ; breeding in the United States from North Carolina to Texas, 

 northward in the Mississippi Valley to Illinois and Kansas, and straggling 

 to New England and South Dakota. 



Black Vulture 



