6 NORTH AMERICAN OOLOGY. PART I. 



following measurements : Sr? inches by lif ; 3 by 2-^g ; SyV by 1||. The prin- 

 cipal difference between the eggs of this and the preceding species is in regard to 

 their size. Their ground color is the same, or nearly the same : a yellowish-white 

 or cream-color, almost newer a pure white, and if so, only in exceptional cases. The 

 eggs are more elongate in theii* shape, and the blotches are usually larger. These 

 are of a dark reddish-brown, confluent and chiefly distributed around the larger end. 

 There are also markings or dashes, smaller and less frequent, of lilac and purplish 

 drab, similar to those noticed in the eggs of the C. aura. An egg from the Rio 

 Grande is marked with small spots of reddish-brown and faint lilac, equally dis- 

 tributed over the whole surface on a ground of cream-color. This is very pecu- 

 liar, and probably not a common variation from the more usual markings of the 

 eggs of this Vulture. The more common markings of this egg ax*e well represented 

 in fig. 3. The specimen was obtained by Audubon on Galveston Island, Texas. 

 Fig. 4 represents a less common variety, obtained by Dr. KoUock in Cheraw, S. C. 



CATHARTES CALIFORNIANUS. 



Vullur calif ornianus, Shaw, Nat. Misc. IX, 1797, 1, pi. ccci. 

 Vultur columhiamis, Ord, Guthrie's Geog. II, 1815, 315. 

 Cathartcs vulturiiius, Temm. PL Col. I, 1820, pi. xxxi. 

 Cathartes calif ornianus, Bonap. Syn. 1828, p. 22. 



" " NuTTALL, Manual, I, 1832, p. 39. 



AuD. Orn. Biog. V, 1838, 240, pi. ccccxi. 

 " " BoNAP. Geog. and Comp. List, 1838, p. 1. 



" " AiTD. Syn. 1839, p. 2. 



" Birdsof Am. (8vo.) I, 1840, 12, pi. i. 

 Gray, Gen. of Birds, 1849, pi. ii. 



Cassin, Syn. N. A. Birds (Illust. Birds of Cal.), 1854, p. 58. 

 VuLG. — The Californian Vulture. The California Turkey-Buzzard. 



But one instance of the possession of a well-authenticated egg of this species by 

 a naturalist has come to my knowledge. This was one laid in confinement by a 

 female belonging to the Garden of Plants in Paris. An accurate drawing of this 

 was taken by Dr. James Trudeau, and is now in my possession. There seems no 

 reason to doubt that the cg^ thus laid does not essentially vary from those depos- 

 ited in a wild state. It certainly is hardly possible that the variations between this 

 and the natural egg can be so total and strildng, as between it and the attributed 



degree of development possessed by the young bird when first hatched. Birds whose young are hatched 

 in an advanced stage of maturity, and can shift for themselves from the egg, like many species of 

 shore-birds, the Uriae and others, have invariably proportionately very large eggs, and vice versa, except 

 only where the female deposits a large number, as in the case of the Wild Turkey, the Virginia Quail, 

 the Ruffed Grouse, and many others. 



