^■66 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BTTIXETIN. 



THE SINGLE EGG OF CALIFORNIA CONDOR 

 Egg from which "General" was hatched. 



To see the Black Vulture at its best — or worst 

 — it is necessary to visit a tropical sea-port. An 

 unwritten law protects these birds throughout 

 their entire range, as the most ignorant Latin- 

 American is well aware of their value and use- 

 fulness to mankind. In the north we are famil- 

 iar with the constant warfare waged against 

 garbage and refuse, especially in our cities. In 

 the easy-going tropics, while such refuse becomes 

 offensive much sooner than 

 with us, human efforts at 

 cleanliness are ably second- 

 ed by the vultures, who act 

 the part of scavengers. 

 They often line the house- 

 tops, ever alert for any 

 scrap which may catch the 

 eye, and a stranger is some- 

 times astonished at having a 

 half dozen of these great 

 black birds swoop down 

 at his very feet, to fight 

 and hiss over some bit of 

 meat. 



Every Spanish village and 

 settlement has its quota of 

 Zopilotes, at night retiring 

 to the neighboring forest or 

 roosting by scores upon thi 

 bare branches of some large 

 dead tree, and returning in 

 early morning to house-top 

 and street. 



The nesting habits of the 

 Black Vulture are of the 

 simplest. Gregarious at all 

 other seasons of the year, it 

 even nests in small colonies, 

 a dozen or twenty pairs 

 often nesting in a circum- 

 scribed patch of underbrush. 

 No nest is made, not even a 

 hollow scratched, but the 

 two large handsome eggs 

 are deposited on the ground 

 in a dense growth of yucca, 

 or close to a log among thick 

 scrub. The parents are 

 very wary, and were it not 

 that in time they wear a dis- 

 tinct winding road to and 

 from the eggs, it would be 

 almost impossible to find 

 them. The nesting season 

 in the United States is from 

 March to May. 

 The eggs measure about two by three inches 

 and are creamy white in color, spotted and 

 blotched with varying shades of brown and 

 lavender. 



Both parents share the duties of incubation, 

 which lasts for about a month. The young are 

 clad in fluffy white down, which is gradually 

 shed and replaced by the dark feathers of the 

 adult. 



OcipyriKlit, lilDT, l)y H. T. Bc.hl 



"GENERAL" ONE DAY OLD 



