12 BULLETIN 16 7, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



rey, Bear Valley, and San Benito south to the Cuyamaca Mountains, 

 Santiago Canyon, and Ventura County. 



Its former range extended north to northern Oregon (mouth of the 

 Columbia River and Multnomah). East to Nevada (cave remains 

 near Las Vegas) and New Mexico (cave remains in Rocky Arroyo, 

 northwest of Carlsbad). In the south the range extended into 

 northern Lower California (San Fernando, Colorado Delta, Laguna 

 Mountains, and San Pedro Martir Mountains). 



Casual records. — Fleming (1924) records a specimen from Fort 

 Vancouver, Wash., in the spring of 1827. In British Columbia, 

 Fannin (fide Kermode, 1904) reported seeing two at Burrard Inlet 

 in September 1880, while Rhoads (1893) states that condors were 

 reported on Lulu Island as late as "three or four years ago." 



This species undoubtedly was more widely distributed in geologic 

 times, as Wetmore (1931) has identified condor bones in Pleistocene 

 deposits of fossils from the Seminole area, near St. Petersburg, Fla. 

 Abundant remains of California condors also have been obtained 

 from the Pleistocene asphalt beds of Rancho La Brea, Los Angeles, 

 Calif. 



Egg dates. — California: 38 records, February 17 to May 28; 19 

 records, March 23 to April 25. 



CATHARTES AURA SEPTENTRIONALIS Wied 

 TURKEY VULTURE 



HABITS 



CONTRIBTJTED BY WiNSOR MARRETT TTLER 



Wlien we travel southward along the Atlantic Seaboard, soon 

 after we cross the invisible line that separates the Transition 

 Zone from the Upper Austral (the map shows us to be in the State 

 of New Jersey), we begin to see from time to time dark spots high 

 up in the sky. They seem stationary at first sight; then, as we 

 watch, we see that they are moving, swinging often in wide circles, 

 and when one of them comes near, we see it is a great dark bird 

 sailing through the air. We have entered the domain of the turkey 

 vulture, the chief avian scavenger of the United States; a big bird 

 with long broad wings, with a keen sense of sight and of smell and, 

 utilitarian as well as aesthetic, a plumage that does not show the 

 dirt, and a naked head and neck like the bare arms of a butcher; 

 a bird of prey, one of the Raptores, but one that does not inflict 

 death, but searches and watches and waits until it comes upon the 

 dead. Then the feast begins. 



Spring. — Toward the northern limit of the bird's breeding range 

 an increase in its numbers is noted at the approach of spring. Thus 



