50 



THE OOLOGIST. 



iiud soon reduce the body to a skeleton. 

 After gorging themselves they loiter 

 near in a sleepy senii-torpid state until 

 their food is disgested. The more rav- 

 enous, when able to stir, perhaps visit 

 again the carcass, if any of it remains, 

 and renevv their disgustful feast. The 

 Vultures are not generally courageous 

 and are often put to flight by birds 

 much smaller than themselves. Their 

 strength is great but their claws are 

 comparatively weak, yet four of them 

 are reported to have dragged a young 

 bear weighiugover one hundred pounds 

 a distance of two hundred yards. 



The flight of this bird is easy and 

 graceful to the extreme. With little or no 

 preceptible motion of the wings and 

 moving in expansive circles it sweeps 

 majestically along, covering by its im- 

 mense powers of flight a vast extent of 

 territory, and searching the earth 

 below with its keen eye for its food. It 

 sometimes, es pecially when hungry, 

 mounts to a lofty height, appearing as 

 the least speck upon the cloudless sky 

 or perhaps venturing beyond the limit- 

 ed vision of man. but not of its own for 

 by its powerful eye it scrutinizes everj' 

 portion of the ground below, able to 

 perceive anj' carcass there. On the 

 ground it moves with Ijecoming dignity, 

 slowly and statelj', l)ut when it attempts 

 to accelerate its pace it becomes at once 

 ungraceful and clumsy. When itarises 

 it runs forward a short distance to give 

 impetus to its body. 



The Vultures are becoming percept- 

 ibly fewer in numbers. They were 

 once com iion in the warm valleys of 

 Central California, where they found 

 subsistence upon the dead of the great 

 herds that pastured there unattended 

 throughout the year. From thegi'eater 

 portions of these regions the herds 

 have disappeared as the land became 

 devoted to agricultural pursuits, conse- 

 quently the Vultures are seen no more 

 in those places, unless it be a straggler 

 that has ventured from its mountain- 



ous home to soar at a dizzy height in 

 these semi-ti'opical skies. The advent 

 of man is invariably followed by the 

 retreat of these birds to more deep- 

 seated haunts. It is possible, perhaps 

 probable, that with the ultimate settle- 

 ment of the wildest regions of Califoi'- 

 nia that the California Vulture will dis- 

 appear and, like the Dodo and Great 

 Ank, be numbered among the creatures 

 that once were. 



The Vulture loves the mountain fast- 

 nesses where it nests among the inac- 

 cessible rocks and cliffs, and lives the 

 undisputed monarch of the Alpine 

 wastes. The eggs are visually laid upon 

 the ground between rocks, or in crev- 

 ices or small caves. An egg in the 

 Smithstonian Institution taken near 

 San Rafael is of an un^orm pale or green- 

 ish blue color, no spots, elongate-ovate 

 in form, decidedly more pointed at one 

 end than the other, and measures 4.40x 

 2.50. Tlie complement of eggs is one 

 or two. 



There is authority for the statement 

 that the Vultures when they find a car- 

 cass tear open the abdomen and through 

 the aperture remove the entrails and 

 fleshy parts of the body and leave the 

 skin covering the bared bones. As I 

 have never witnessed this performance 

 I am unable to assert either the trutli or 

 falsity of the statement, but from Avhat 

 I have seen I am of the opinion that it 

 is true, at least as regards the larger 

 mammals. 



On the western border of the San 

 Joaquin valley isa level, waterless expan- 

 se measuring many milesin extent, where 

 neither tree nor hillock arises to ob- 

 struct the vision, whose only inhabit- 

 ants are a few Horned Lai'ks, rabbits 

 and coyotes. Here linger a few oftheherds 

 that once roamed over the central part 

 ofthe state. They find their food among 

 the remotely situated mountains and 

 (^uench their thirst at the side of the 

 distant Tulare Lake; whither it seems, 

 at statcil hours they wander along sin- 



