CATHARISTA. 221 



inches, tail 11.00-12.00, culmen 1.00, tarsus 2.25-2.30, middle toe 

 2.50. Nest a cavity among roclfs or in hollow of a log, stump, 

 or tree-trunk, without additional material. Eggs 2, 2.7-1 x 1-89, 

 ovate or broadly ellijitical ovate, white, huffy white, or greenish 

 white, more or less spotted or blotched with rich brown (madder or 

 burnt-umber) and purplish gray. Hah. Nearly the whole of temper- 

 ate and tropical America, including West Indies ; south to Falkland 

 Islands and Patagonia, north, more or less regularly, to southern 

 New England, New York, the Saskatchewan, and British Columbia. 



325. C. aura (Linn.). Turkey Vulture. 

 ¥. Plumage of upper parts entirely uniform dull black ; naked skin of head 

 and upper neck of adult yellow in life. 

 Wing 20.00, tail 12.00, culmen .82, tarsus 2.50, middle toe 2.40. Hab. 

 Amazonian region of South America (Guiana to eastern Peru). 



C. pernigra (Sharpe). Amazonian Turkey Vulture.^ 

 a*. Uj)per part of hind-neck feathered quite to the occiput ; wing less than 20.00. 

 Adult : Entirely uniform black (as in C. pernigra), the shafts of the quills 

 white ; " bill and cere reddish white ; crown and lower side of head pale 

 violet or sky-blue ; side of head, neck, and throat beautiful graj^-orange ;" 

 iris red ; bill white. Immature : " Iris blackish gray ; head in very 

 young birds reddish gray, whitish on crown and over the eye ; neck 

 bluish, subsequent to which the head becomes reddish violet, with a 

 whitish blue patch on the occipital region." (Gurney.) Downy yoking : 

 " The down is light rufous ; the bill, the lower part of the face, and the 

 cheeks, are black ; the rest of the head light rufous washed with brown ; 

 the iris chocolate ; the feet flesh-color, with blackish scales." '^ Length 

 about 22.00-25.00, wing 18.00-18.50, tail 8.50-9.00, culmen .80-.90, tar- 

 sus 2.10-2.40, middle toe 2.15-2.25. Hab. Eastern trojjical America 

 (except West Indies), from Brazil to eastern Mexico (Vera Cruz) ; 



southern Texas? 



C. burrovianus Cass. Burroughs' s Turkey Vulture.' 



Genus CATHARISTA Yieillot. (Page 219, pi. LXIV., fig. 7.) 



Species. 



Adult : Entire plumage uniform dull black, the quills grayish basally (hoary 

 whitish on under surface), their shafts pure white ; bill dusky with yellowish or 

 whitish tip ; naked skin of head and fore-neck dusk3^ Young : Not obviously 



1 (Enops pernigra Shakpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. i. 1874, 26. Cathartes pernigra Ridgw., Bull. Nutt. Orn. 

 Club, V. 1880, 83. 



2 Professor A. Duges, of Guanajuato, Mexico, in letter. I refer somewhat doubtfully the bird which he de- 

 scribes to C. burrovianus, for the reason that it certainly is not C. aura nor Catharinta atrnta, and no other 

 species besides these and C. burrovianus is known to inhabit Mexico. Drawings sent by Professor Duges, rep- 

 resenting both the bird under consideration and the corresponding stage of Catkarista atrata, show conclusively 

 that it is a true Cathartes. 



3 Cathartes burrovianus Cass., Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila., ii. 1845, 212, 



