32 BULLETIN 16 7, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



the armed stems, and, the difference in bulk between a man and a Buzzard 

 being considerable, the pointed leaves find a good many of a fellow's weak 

 points before he reaches his prize * * *, 



Quite rarely I have found eggs on the other parts of the island, and once or 

 twice in completely exposed situations, with not even an attempt to get imder 

 the protection of an overhanging bush. Possibly these belonged to young birds 

 which had still much to learn in regard to ways of housekeeping. 



Charles K. Stockard (1904) says: "The black vulture was found 

 depositing her eggs in more widely different situations than any 

 other bird observed. The favorite site was a large hollow log, or a 

 tree having a huge hollow base with an opening only a few feet 

 up, so that the female might be able to jump out of the nest." He 

 notes the following nestings of this bird : "One pair for three sea- 

 sons nested in a large hollow sycamore log that lay across a small 

 stream and served as a 'foot log' for a little-used path in a swampy 

 wood. At least three people a day must have walked over the log 

 ag the vulture sat calmly on her eggs." In another case "a set of 

 two eggs was found lying on the bare ground under a large tree that 

 had been uprooted and had fallen so that its trunk made an angle 

 of about fifteen degrees to the earth. The eggs were placed below 

 this trunk, which was four and a half feet above them, and thus 

 slanting sun rays could have fallen upon the spot but for the heavy 

 foliage of the wood." Two sets of eggs were found on the ground 

 in a dense cane thicket. Another set was found in a cave in a steep 

 clay bank bordering a creek. The entrance of the cave was 7 feet 

 wdde, it was 2i/^ feet high, and ran back 6 feet. The eggs lay in the 

 back of the cave. 



James A. Lyon, Jr. (1893), writing of the limestone bluffs on the 

 Cumberland River in Tennessee says : "The most of these bluffs have 

 'caves' or holes running back into them only two or three feet deep, 

 others deeper. It is in these 'caves' that the black vulture usually 

 deposits its eggs, though sometimes they are found under an over- 

 hanging ledge of rock. As a general rule thej^ do not go far into the 

 bluff, but lay near the entrance to the hole." 



Eggs. — [Author's note: The black vulture lays normally two 

 eggs, occasionally only one and very rarely three. They vary in 

 shape from ovate to elliptical-ovate or elongate-ovate, very rarely 

 fusiform. The shell is smooth but not glossy. They can usually 

 be distinguished from turkey-vulture eggs by being somewhat larger, 

 having a peculiar ground color, and being much less heavily marked. 

 The usual ground color is pale gray-green, sometimes pale bluish 

 white or dull white and rarely creamy white. There are usually 

 a few large blotches or gpots, mostly near the large end or in a 

 ring around it; some eggs are more evenly spotted and some are 

 nearly immaculate. The markings are mostly in dark browns, 



