FAMILY CATHARTIDAE l6l 



with a stick, but immediately scuttled back under the cover of their 

 spiny shelter. At Sona, Veraguas, I saw young recently on the wing 

 at the beginning of Jime. 



The eggs are fairly smooth, white with a very faint bluish or 

 greenish tinge, ordinarily spotted rather heavily with chestnut brown. 

 Three sets of 2 each in the U. S. National Museum, collected on the 

 island of Trinidad, of the same tropical race of black vulture that is 

 found in Panama, vary from subelliptical to long elliptical in form, 

 and from 70.9x48.1 mm. to 74.0x51.2 mm. in size. A single egg 

 from La Jagua, Panama, taken on January 13, 1962, laid on the 

 ground in a huge cavity in the base of a large tree, measures 69.9 X 

 51.0 mm. 



The typical subspecies of black vulture, Coragyps atratus atratus 

 (Bechstein) differs from the tropical race in larger size, with a wing 

 measurement in both sexes ranging from 414 to 445 (average 426) 

 mm. The tropical subspecies, which is the one of Panama, found 

 from southern Mexico to southern Brazil, has the wing 386 to 413 

 (401) mm. The two are alike in general form, and in color, except 

 that in the tropical race the light area on the under wing is somewhat 

 more extensive, and is whiter, so that it appears slightly more promi- 

 nent . (For further discussion, see Wetmore, Smithsonian Misc. Coll., 

 vol. 145, no. 1, 1962, pp. 1-4.) While it has been suggested that the 

 Black Vulture may be migratory (Eisenmann, Wilson Bull., 1963, pp. 

 244-249) through Panama, my personal observations do not verify 

 this supposition. 



In northern South America this species is called samuro. 



CATHARTES AURA Linnaeus: Turkey Vulture; Noneca 

 Figures 32, 33 



Tail long so that in flight the feet do not project beyond end; 

 wings longer, more pointed. 



Description. — Length 635 to 760 mm. Adult, dull black in general, 

 with more or less of a bluish gloss above; the wing coverts edged 

 with dark brown ; under surface of wings grayish white, beyond the 

 black under wing coverts; bare head and upper neck of adult red, 

 marked with transverse yellow lines in the resident race ruficollis, 

 entirely red in the two forms that come to Panama as migrants from 

 the north. 



Immature birds have the neck, and to less degree the head, covered 

 with short, grayish black down, except for an irregular mark of dull 

 white on either side of the back of the head. Juvenile : Nestlings when 

 hatched are covered with soft white down. 



