156 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I50 



A female living in the New York Zoological Park weighed 3 kilo- 

 grams (Conway, Auk, 1962, p. 275). 



Measurements. — Males (10 from Mexico, Costa Rica, and Colom- 

 bia), wing 490-525 (503), tail 207-227 (215), culmen from cere 

 32.1-38.8 (35.2), tarsus 93-103 (98.6) mm. 



Females (2 from Mexico), wing 490-497 (493), tail 213-217 (215), 

 culmen from cere 33.5-34.0 (33.7), tarsus 100-106 (103) mm. 



Resident. Found in small number throughout the Isthmus, from 

 coastal areas to 1200 to 1500 meters elevation in the mountains; 

 recorded from all of the provinces and territories, and on Isla Coiba. 

 The total population is not large. 



The usual sight of this species is of one soaring high above the 

 earth, when its greater size and, if it is an adult, the conspicuous black 

 and white pattern separate it instantly from other vultures that may 

 be in the air. Rarely two appear in the same area of sky, and on a 

 few occasions I have seen as many as four. 



The rey gallinazo comes to carrion with the other vultures, when 

 its larger size dominates the scene, so that the smaller species usually 

 wait in the background until the king vulture leaves. It is this circum- 

 stance that has given the species its local names in Panama of cacique 

 and cacicon. Once, however, at Ana Luz, below Chepo, I saw one 

 feeding at a carcass amid an avid swarm of black vultures. 



When attracted by a prospect of food king vultures sometimes 

 descend from high in air with great rapidity, and a roaring of wings 

 that may be startling, particularly in heavy forest where the view 

 of the sky is cut off by the high tree crown. At our camp at 

 Quebrada Cauchero, on the base of Cerro Chucanti, one made such 

 a descent when it spotted our trays of specimens spread out to dry 

 on a pole rack in our tiny clearing. Occasionally I have come across 

 one perched at rest in forest, when the bird peered down through 

 light-colored eyes, with head depressed to the level of the shoulders 

 or below. On Isla Coiba they were especially tame as they were not 

 disturbed, so that I approached one within 12 meters without alarm- 

 ing it, but this is unusual. 



In spite of the wide range of this species, from central Mexico 

 through Central America and South America to northern Argentina, 

 little is known of its nesting. An egg in the collections of the U. S. 

 National Museum, laid by a bird in captivity in the National Zoological 

 Park on April 7, 1920, is unusual, for though elliptical in its central 

 outline it is definitely bluntly pointed at both ends. It is dull white, 

 unmarked, and has a slightly roughened, granular shell. It measures 



