278 Mr . Sclater on the Egg and Nestliiuj of the Calif ornian Vulture. 



38. PoDicEPs DOMiNicus (Linii.). 

 Lake of Duenas, October 13th, 1859. 



39. Sterna frenata, Gambel : Baird, Rep. p. 864. 



This skin I bought in Coban, and am not sure where it was 

 procured. 



XXXIV. — Note on the Egg and Nestling of the Californian 

 Vulture. By Philip Lutley Sclater. 



(Plates VIII. and IX.) 



Mr. J. H. Gurney has kindly supplied, for the use of this 

 Journal, the two accompanying plates, which represent the nest- 

 ling and egg of the Californian Vulture {Cathartes calif ornianus) . 

 They are copied from drawings (made by Mr. Reeve of the Nor- 

 wich Museum) of the specimens (forwarded to Mr. Gurney by his 

 correspondent, Mr. A.S.Taylor, of Monterey), which have already 

 been alluded to in these pages*. The circumstances of the dis- 

 covery of the two nests, one of which contained the young bird, 

 supposed to be about from five to seven days old (Plate VIII.), 

 and the other the egg (Plate IX.), having been already given, 

 as also a sufficient description of the specimens, it is not necessary 

 to repeat them. But it may be as well to remark, that in Dr. 

 Brewer's valuable work on 'North American Oology' (p. 7), the 

 egg of the Californian Vulture is described, from a drawing of a 

 specimen said to have been laid in confinement at the Jardin des 

 Plantes, as somewhat different from the one represented here. 

 The dimensions there given (3i-| by 2yf ) would indicate a con- 

 siderably smaller egg than the present specimen. The ring of 

 reddish-brown blotches in the egg of the Jardin des Plantes is 

 perhaps of less significance, as many of the Vulttmda lay some- 

 times spotted and sometimes colourless eggs (see Mr. Salvin's 

 remarks on the eggs of Gj/ps fulvus in this Journal for last year, 

 p. 179). But it is certainly a reversal of what is generally the 

 case, to find a white egg laid by a Vulture in a wild state, and 

 a coloured egg laid by a bird in confinement ; and, on the 

 whole, it would be well not to place too much confidence in the 

 drawing spoken of by Dr. Brewer. 



* See 'Ibis,' 1859, p. 469. 



