CATHARTES AURA, TURKEY BUZZARD. 381 



same is the case in both the Caroliuas, where I constantly observed it 

 during a residence of three or four years. In the interior it appears to 

 winter higher up ; thus, Mr. Trippe saw it late in October, and again 

 in December, in Minnesota. But the last may have been an unusual 

 occurrence ; probably the parallel of 40°, or rather the isothermal cor- 

 responding to this latitude on the Atlantic coast may approximately 

 indicate the line of its northernmost winter residence. 



As is well known, the distribution of the Black Vulture, or Carrion 

 Crow, is much more restricted than that of the Turkey Buzzard. It 

 may not be amiss to compare the two, especially since some wholly un- 

 founded reports are current. The most notable of these is the record, 

 in the Fauna Boreali-Americaua, of the Black Vulture's abundance in 

 the Columbia Eiver region and elsewhere west of the Eocky Mountains. 

 But this rests entirely upon the statements of Mr. David Douglas, who 

 unquestionably mistook Turkey Buzzards for Black Vultures. The fact 

 is, that there is not a single authentic instance of the occurrence of the 

 latter on the Pacitic coast of the United States, nor anywhere west of 

 the Eocky Mountains in this country. As Dr. Cooper suggests, in ex- 

 planation of the statements of even so reliable an observer as Dr. Gam- 

 bel, the young of the Turkey Buzzard, before acquiring the red head, 

 may have been mistaken for the Black Vulture ; and he entirely dis- 

 credits the Pacific records. For the interior we have the authority of 

 Dr. Woodhouse, which there seems to be no reason to question in this 

 instance, for the occurrence of the Black Vulture in the Creek and 

 Cherokee countries, and less numerously in New Mexico. Up the Mis- 

 sissippi Valley, it is stated to occur as far as Illinois. I find no instance 

 of its presence in the region of the Missouri or any of its tributaries, 

 so that I cannot formally introduce it in this work ; but I should not be 

 surprised if it were hereafter shown to occur about the mouth of the 

 Missouri. On the Atlantic, Mr. Audubon states, it has been found as 

 far north as Maryland, and there are several authentic instances of its 

 straggling even into New England. But its ordiuar^- limit is, prob- 

 ably, the vicinity of Wilmington, North Carolina; certainly, at most, 

 not beyond the maritime portions of Virginia. I never saw it at Wash- 

 ington, D. C. ; the furthest point I have traced it to being Newberne, 

 North Carolina. At Fort Macon, on the North Carolina coast^ opposite 

 Beaufort, it regularly occurs every summer; and I once saw numbers 

 in March at that locality (Pr. Phila. Acad. 1871, 28). But even here 

 they are far outnumbered by the Turkey Buzzards, and it is not until 

 we reach Charleston, South Carolina, that the reverse proportion of in- 

 dividuals of the two species is witnessed. They are moreover especially 

 maritime; for, even in South Carolina, as we recede from the coast, they 

 become less numerous, until at Columbia, South Carolina, the Turkey 

 Buzzards are again the more plentiful of the two. In this city both 

 species resider all the year. 



No one can fail to observe with interest the great difference in the 

 form and general appearance of the two species when he compares 

 them sitting side by side sunning themselves upon chimney <»r house- 

 top ; and especially the discrepancy in their mode of flight as they 

 wheel together overhead in endless inosculating circles. The Turkey 

 Buzzards look larger as they tly, though really they are lighter weights; 

 they are dingy -brown, with a gray space underneath the wing; the tail 

 is long; the fore-border of the wing is bent at a salient angle, and there 

 is a corresponding reentrance in its hind outline; the tii)s of the longest 

 quills spread apart and bend upward; and one may watch these 

 splendid llyers for hours without perceiving a movement of the pinions. 



