BIRDS OF KANSAS. 245 



Genus CATHARISTA Vieillot. 



"Size of CatlinrtcK, but more robust, with shorter wings and verj' different 

 flight. Wings with the remiges abbreviated, the primaries scarcely reaching to 

 the middle of the tail. Tail even, or faintly emarginated. Head and upper 

 portion of neck naked, the feathers extending farther up behind than in front; 

 naked skin of the side of the neck transversely corrugated; no bristles before 

 the eye. Nostrils narrow, occupying only about the posterior half of the nasal 

 orifice, its anterior end contracted and acute. Cere not contracted anteriorly, 

 but the upper and lower outline parallel; much depressed, or broader than deep. 

 Plumage beginning gradually on the neck with normal or broad and rounded 

 feathers. Fourth or fifth quill longest; outer five with inner webs sinuated. 

 Tarsus longer than middle toe." 



Catharista atrata (Baetk.). 



BLACK VULTURE. 

 PLATE XIV. 



Slimmer resident; rare. Dr. George Lisle, of Chetopa, (a 

 close observer,) wrote me, in the spring of 1883, that the birds 

 were quite common and breeding there fifteen or twenty years 

 ago, but now quite scarce; that he saw three of the birds in the 

 fall of 1882 at a slaughter pen, with Turkey Buzzards; that in 

 1858 he found a nest with two eggs in an old, hollow, broken 

 stump. And Dr. Lewis Watson reports the capture of one at 

 Ellis, March 27th, 1885. 



B. 3. R. 455. C. 538. G. 214, 112. U. 326. 



Habitat. The whole of tropical, and warmer temperate, 

 America; north to North Carolina and the lower Mississippi 

 valley; casually to Maine, New York, Illinois, Dakota, etc. ; 

 south to Chili and the Argentine Republic. (Apparently want- 

 ing in California and western Mexico.) 



Sp. Char. "Form heavy; the wings and tail short, the latter square; the 

 remiges and rectrices very hard and stiff. Bill strong, the mandibles broader 

 than deep, and of about equal depth, the terminal hook well developed; upper 

 and lower outlines of the cere parallel and nearly straight. Nostril narrow, its 

 anterior end contracted and pointed. Adult: Bill blackish, the point horny 

 white; naked skin of the head and upper part of the neck blackish. Entire 

 plumage continuous, perfectly uniform dull black; primaries becoming grayish 

 basally (more hoary whitish on their under surface), their shafts pure white for 

 their whole length." 



Measurements of a pair of birds in the ' ' Goss Ornithological 



Collection:" 



