FAMILY CATHARTIDAE 1 57 



91.4x60.8 mm. This is similar to the dimensions of 92x60 mm. 

 given by Swann for one from "South America" (locality not listed) 

 in the British Museum. 



The Penards (Vog. Guyana, vol. 1, 1908, p. 357) state that the nest 

 is in a hollow tree or rock fissure, and that one egg is laid. This they 

 describe as oval, white or dirty white, with somewhat shining, 

 roughened shell, in size 92x63 mm. Col. L. R. Wolfe has a single 

 egg in his collection, collected many years ago in northeastern Peru, 

 and formerly in the collection of J. Parker Norris, Jr. This is 

 rounded oval, dull white in color, with a very finely pitted shell, 

 and measures 89.4 by 64.2 mm (Ool. Rec, 1951, p. 18). Norris (Ool. 

 Rec, 1926, p. 25) lists another from nothern Bolivia taken in 

 October 1874, with a dimension of 92.5 X 65.0 mm. 



On February 19, 1954, on Barro Colorado Island I saw a young 

 bird, only a week or two on the wing, perched in a large tree near 

 the laboratory building. It must have been reared near at hand. In 

 January 1957 Carl Koford found a young bird in down, with wings 

 nearly developed but the tail still rudimentary, living on the forest 

 floor, also on Barro Colorado. This bird was kept under observation 

 until it was able to fly. 



Heck (Zool. Gart., vol. 27, pt. 6, 1963, p. 296) in a report of a 

 breeding pair in captivity at the Catskill Game Farm gives the incu- 

 bation period to hatching for single eggs as 56 and 58 days. 



CORAGYPS ATRATUS BRASILIENSIS (Bonaparte) : Black Vulture; 



GaUinazo 



Figure 31 



Catliartes brasiliensis Bonaparte, Consp. Gen. Avium, vol. 1, pt. 1, 1850, p. 9. 

 (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.) 



Tail square-ended and short, so that in flight, when the legs are 

 extended back, the toes project beyond the end. 



Description. — Length 560 to 660 mm. Adult, black throughout, 

 except on the under side of the central webs of the outer primaries, 

 which are white, and form a prominent light patch on either wing 

 when the bird is in the air; head and neck without feathers, black, 

 the skin much wrinkled. 



Juvenile, when hatched, with down pale cinnamon-buflf over the 

 body, changing to olive-brown on the nape and the back of the neck, 

 and dark neutral gray from the center of the crown forward. 



Measurements. — Males (17 from Mexico, Panama, Colombia, 

 Venezuela, British Guiana, and Surinam), wing 386-410 (401), tail 



