BIRDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA 21 



front end of nostril 34.2-40.5 (36.6); tarsus 73.6-73.8 (79.2); middle 

 toe without claw 73.5-79 (76.3 mm.).''* 



Range. — Tropical and warm-temperate portions of continental 

 America in general; north regularly to Virginia eastern West Virginia, 

 and southern Maryland (coast), southern Indiana, southern Illinois, 

 southern Ohio, Kansas, Missouri, western Texas, and northwestern 

 Mexico (as far as Guaymas; not found north of Mexico west of western 

 Texas and Kansas except in southern Arizona) ; occasionally to south- 

 ern Ohio and South Dakota, accidentally or casually to southern 

 Ontario, southwestern Quebec, New Brunswick, Novia Scotia, Maine 

 (vicinity of Calais), Massachusetts, northern Ohio, northern New 

 York, northern North Dakota (Fargo),'® and Arizona, one doubtful 

 record each for Jamaica and Cuba '^; otherwise unknown in the West 

 Indies although it may have occurred at one time in Hispaniola,'^ 

 south through Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, and Panama, through- 

 out all South America to Argentina (south as far as Rio Negro, Pata- 

 gonia, but scarce there) and Chile (from Coquimbo south to Chilo6 

 and Llanquihue). 



Type locality. — Florida. 



Vultur atralus Bechstein, Anhang., i, Latham's Allg. Uebers. Vogel, 1793, 655 

 (based on "Black Vulture or Carrion Crow" Bartram, Travels, 1791, 152, 289 

 (St. Johns River, Fla.). — Meyer, Zool. Ann., i, 1794, 290. — Ord, in Wilson's 

 Amer. Orn., ix, 1814, 104, pi. 75, fig. 2 (Charleston and Georgetown, S. C, and 

 Savannah, Ga. ; type now in coll. Mus. Comp. Zool.; see Faxon, Bull. Mus. 

 Comp. Zool., lix, 1915, 134; ex Vultur atratus, black vulture or carrion crow, 

 Bartram's Travels, 1792, 289). — Bonaparte, Journ. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phil- 

 adelphia, iii, 1824, 342 (crit.); iv, 1824, 269 (crit.). — Audubon (Brewster 

 ed.), Edinburgh Journ. Sci., vi, 1827, 156. 



Cathartes atratus Bonaparte, Journ. Acad. Nat. Sci., Philadelphia, iv, pt. 2, 1824, 

 269; Obs. Wilson's Amer, Orn., 1826, [128]; Consp. Gen. Av., i, 1850, 9.— 

 Lesson, Man. d'Orn., i, 1828, 6. — Jameson, ed. Wilson's Amer. Orn., i, 1831, 

 10. — Swainson and Richardson, Fauna Bor.-Amer., ii, 1831, 6. — Audubon, 



'^ Seventy specimens, 47 from North and Middle America, 23 from South 

 America. By many authors the South American black vulture has been recog- 

 nized as a distinct race, C. a. foetens (Lichtenstein), based on smaller size. Ex- 

 amination of this series indicates that while North American examples (true 

 atratua) do sometimes attain larger proportions than do South American individ- 

 uals, yet the variational limits of the latter {foetens) are wholly contained within 

 those of the former (except for one very small Chilean specimen, w. 405 mm.) 

 and the average difference between the two groups is only 2.5 percent. Thus, 

 although it is possible to tell large North American birds, it is impossible to iden- 

 tify any South American specimen on the basis of size. Consequently I consider 

 the two inseparable systematically. It may be noted, however, that the eggs of 

 the South American birds are smaller than North American ones. 



" Cf. Boardman, Forest and Stream, xx. No. 6, 1883, 106. 



" Cf. Barbour, Birds of Cuba, 1923, 43. 



'^ Cf. Wetmore and Swales, Birds Haiti and Dominican Republic, 1931, 108, 

 footnote. 



