704 



S YS TEMA TIC S Y NOP SIS. — RAP TORES — CA THA R TIDES. 



Fig. 479. —Turkey Vulture. 



sometimes 1, rarely 3, from 2.75 X 1-85 to 3.15 X 1-95, white or creamy, variously spotted 

 and blotched with diU'ereut bruwus, aod with laveuder or purplish-drab shell-markiugs, only 



exceptionally immaculate ; they are laid 

 from the middle of February on our south- 

 ern border, to June in the highest lati- 

 tudes frequented by the bird. The young 

 are fed with filtli, by regm-gitation, like 

 s(iuabs and various altricial water-birds. 

 This Vulture has a curious habit of "play- 

 ing possum," by simulating death when 

 wounded and captured ; the feint is admi- 

 rably executed and often long protracted. 

 C. burrovia'nus. (To Dr. Burroughs.) 

 BuRROUGii's Turkey Vulture. A 

 small species, strictly of the form of C. 

 aura in proportions of wings and tail, 

 cliaracter of nostrils, etc., but with plu- 

 mage peaked on uape to occiput, as in 

 Catharista unihu. Adult ^ 9 '■ Black, with white shafts of primaries ; head blue and orange : 

 bill flesh color ; iris red. Length 24.00 or less ; wing under 20.00, and other parts corre- 

 spondingly less than those of C. aura, from w-hich quite distinct. Trf)pical and subtropical 

 America, attributed to California by Gambel (Journ. Acad. Piiila. i, p. 20), and to Texas by 

 Dresser (Ibis, 18G5, p. 322). Cassin, Pr. Phila. Acad. 1845, p. 212; 111. 1853, p. 59; B. 

 N. A. 1858, p. G, originally described from Vera Cruz and Mazatlau ; Elliot, B. N. A. 1866, 

 pi. 26, type figured. Not taken up in former editions of the Key. A. 0. U. Hypothetical 

 List, No. 13. 



CATHARIS'TA. (Gr. Ka6api(oi, hifharizo, I purify.) Carrion-crows. Of medium size; 

 body stout. Head naked, and generally as in Cathartes, but feathers of neck running up be- 

 hind to a point on oc- 



ciput; outline of plu- 

 mage thus very differ- 

 ent from that of C. 

 aura. Cere contracted ; 

 nostrils narrow, less 

 openly pervious than 

 in Cathartes. Wings 

 shorter and relatively 

 broader than in Ca- 

 thartes, not folding to 

 end of tail, which is 

 short, only about ^ the 

 wing, even or emar- 

 giuate; 4th and 5th 

 quills longest- The 

 difference in size and 

 shape between Ca- 

 thartes and Catharista ^'«- l^^O. -Black Vulture, I nat. size. (From Brehm.) 



is strikingly displayed when the birds are seen flying together ; there is also a decided difier- 

 ence in mode of flight, as Catharista never sails for any distance without interrupting that 

 easy motion by flapping the wings. 



