354 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



Alexander Wilson describes with great minuteness a scene lie witnessed 

 near Charleston, where the carcass of a horse was devoured by these birds, 

 the ground for hundreds of yards around being black with them. He 

 counted at one time two hundred and thirty-seven, while others were in the 

 iiiv flying around. He ventured within a few yards of the horse without 

 their heeding his presence. They frequently attacked one another, fighting 

 with their claws and striking with their open wings, fixing their claws in 

 each other's head. They made a hissing sound with open mouths, resem- 

 bling that produced by thrusting a red-hot poker into water, and occasionally 

 a snuffling noise, as if clearing their nostrils. At times one would emerge 

 with a large fragment, and in a moment would be surrounded by several 

 others, who would tear it in pieces and soon cause it to disappear. 



The Black Vulture breeds on or near the ground in the same manner as 

 the Turkey-Buzzard, in hollow logs, decayed trunks of trees, and stumps, 

 and also without this protection, the bare earth only being made use of. It 

 is said to make no nest. The eggs seldom, if ever, exceed two in number. 

 These are greater, both in their length and capacity, than those of the Turkey- 

 Buzzard, although the measurements of the birds themselves would seem to 

 show the latter to be apparently the larger bird. The average weight of the 

 Black Vulture's egg, however, is about one pound, or fifteen per cent greater 

 than that of the Buzzard. Three from Charleston, Galveston, and the Eio 

 Grande furnish the following measurements : 3.81 inches by 1.94; 3 by 2.06; 

 3.06 by 1.94. The principal difference between the eggs of this and the pre- 

 ceding species is in regard to their size. Their ground-color is the same, or 

 nearly tlie same, — a yellowish-white or cream-color, almost never a pure 

 white, and only in exceptional cases. The eggs are more elongate in their 

 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, smaller and less frequent, of lilac and purplish-drab, similar 

 to those noticed in the eggs of C. aura. An egg from tlie Eio Grande is 

 marked with small spots of reddish-brown and obscure lilac, equally dis- 

 tributed over the whole surface on a ground of cream-color. 



Mr. Audubon is positive that this Vulture never lu-eeds in trees, and that 

 they never build any nest, but deposit their eggs on the ground, on a dead 

 log, or in a hollow tree. Twenty-one days are required for hatcliing their 

 eggs, on which the male and female sit by turns and feed each other. The 

 young are covered with a light cream-colored down, and are fed with regur- 

 gitated food, in the manner of Pigeons. As soon as they are able, they 

 follow their parents through the woods, at which period their entire head 

 and neck, which afterwards become bare, are covered with feathers. 



