68 Contributions from the Charleston Museum. 



wings to gain headway, but invariably beating to windward like a 

 sailing boat. 



I have found but two nests of this bird in South Carolina. The 

 first was merely a slight depression on the ground under a fallen 

 log in a dense thicket of primeval forest, and contained one egg 

 on April 15, 1898. The vulture was incubating, but would not 

 leave the nest. I therefore secured a stout stick and raised the 

 bird from the egg, when almost immediately the egg was covered 

 with blow-flies. I repeated this operation several times and just 

 as soon as the stick was removed the bird settled itself on the egg 

 to incubate. Upon visiting the nest for four consecutive days to 

 see if another egg would be laid, I could not examine the contents 

 without using a stick to raise the bird from the nest, and at each 

 removal of the stick the bird resumed incubation. Only one egg 

 was laid and that contained a small embryo. On April 25, 1906, 

 a set of two eggs, on the point of hatching, was found in the hol- 

 low of a cypress tree in a dense swamp. The eggs are white or 

 creamy white, spotted and blotched with chocolate and purplish 

 markings, and measure 2.75X1.85. One or two eggs are laid. 



131. Catharista urtibu Vieill. Black Vulture. 



The Black Vulture, also a permanent resident, outnumbers 

 the former species by at least forty to one. Anyone who visits the 

 market in Charleston can see that the birds are half domesticated 

 there. As soon as the butchers throw a piece of meat into the 

 street, several vultures at once engage in a fight for it. If the 

 morsel happens to be of some length and two birds have a hold 

 upon it, each tugs away at his end and swallows as fast as the 

 other relaxes its hold. The meat is constantly guarded by the 

 butchers, for if they did not remain at their stalls, the vultures 

 would very soon rob them of the smaller pieces. 



This species generally runs a short distance before flying, in 

 order to get a start, but when on wing its flight is powerful. 



The birds mate in February, and when engaged in this pleasure 

 utter a hissing sound which can be heard at a distance of several 

 hundred yards. No nest is formed, but the eggs, which are al- 

 ways two in number, are laid on the ground in a secluded part of 

 the woods, either under or in the hollow of a fallen tree; and again 

 I have found eggs and young in Spanish bayonet thickets and in 

 supple-jack swamps. The eggs are, however, always laid in a 

 dry place. 



