NO. 5 CHECK-LIST OF FOSSIL BIRDS — WETMORE 35 



Order FALCONIFORMES : Vultures, Hawks, and Falcons 



Suborder CATHARTAE : New World Vultures 



Superfamily NEOCATHARTOIDEA : Neocathartes 



Family NEOCATHARTIDAE : Neocathartes 



Genus NEOCATHARTES Wetmore 



Neocathartes Wetmore, Auk, vol. 67, No. 2, April 1950, p. 235. Type, by 

 original designation, Eocathartes grallator Wetmore. 



Neocathartes grallator (Wetmore) 



Eocathartes grallator Wetmore, Ann. Carnegie Mus., vol. 30, May 24, 1944, 

 p. 58, pis. i-s, figs. i-io. 



Upper Eocene (Upper Washakie beds) : Sand wash one-half mile 

 north of Dobe Town Road crossing, Sweetwater County, Wyoming. 



Superfamily CATHARTOIDEA : New World Vultures 



Family CATHARTIDAE : New World Vultures 



Genus CATHARTES Illiger 



Cathartes Illiger, Prodromus, 181 1, p. 236. Type, by subsequent designation, 

 Vultur aura Linnaeus (Vigors, 1825). 



Cathartes aura (Linnaeus) : Turkey Vulture ^2 



Vultur aura Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., ed. 10, vol. i, 1758, p. 86. 



Modern form reported from Pleistocene : Seminole Field, Pinellas 

 County,^^ Melbourne, and cavern deposits near Lecanto, Florida. 

 Late Pleistocene : Potter Creek and Samwel caves, Shasta County, 

 Hawver Cave, Eldorado County, Carpinteria, Santa Barbara County, 

 McKittrick, Kern County, Rancho La Brea, Los Angeles, and San 

 Pedro (Palos Verdes sand, lumberyard locality), Los Angeles County, 

 California. 



Genus CORAGYPS Geoffrey 



Coragyps Geoffroy Ms in Le Maout, Hist. Nat. Oiseaux, 1853, p. 66. Type, 

 by monotypy, Vultur urubu Vieillot = Vultur atratus Bechstein. 



*2 Wetmore, Smithsonian Misc. Coll., vol. 85, No. 2, Apr. 13, 1931, pp. 4, 6, 

 7, 23-24, has recorded the small Mexican turkey vulture, Cathartes aura aura, 

 from Seminole Field, Pinellas County, Florida. Other reports of this species 

 are mainly of the larger type, of which two races, septentrionalis and teter, are 

 at present recognized in the United States. 



*3 Recorded from Vero, stratum 2, erroneously by Shufeldt, 9th Ann. Rep. 

 Florida State Geol. Surv., 1917, p. 36. The record from Vero (stratum 3) is of 

 Recent age according to Cooke, Florida Geol. Surv. Bull. 29, 1945, pp. 306-307. 



