222 CATHARTID®, AMERICAN VULTURES. —GEN. 166. 
166. Genus CATHARTES Illiger. 
Californian Vulture. Brownish-black, lustrous above, paler below; 
secondary quills gray; greater coverts tipped with white; bill whitish; head 
and neck orange and red; “iris carmine.” Most of the neck, as well as 
the head, naked, with scattered bristle-like feathers, and a feathered patch 
at base of the bill; plumage commencing on the neck, not with a downy 
ruff, as in the condor, but with lengthened lanceolate feathers continued on 
the breast; nostrils comparatively small; tail nearly even. Young covered 
with whitish down. Largest of the genus; length about 4 feet; extent 9; 
wing 2; tail 14; thus approaching the condor in size. Egg white, 
granular, elliptical, 43 by 2% inches. General habits the same as those of 
the following species. Rocky Mountains to the Pacific, U.S. Avp., i, 12, 
pl. 1; Nurr., 1,39; ii, 557; Cass. in Bp., 5; Coopr., 496. CALIFORNIANUS. 
Turkey Buzzard.  Blackish-brown; quills ashy-gray on their under 
surface ; head red; feet flesh-colored; bill white. Skin of the head corru- 
gated, sparsely beset with bristle-like feathers; plumage commencing in a 
circle on the neck; nostrils very large and open; tail rounded. Length 
about 25 feet; extent 6; wing 2; taill. U.S., from Atlantic to Pacific, 
and somewhat northward; abundant in more southern portions; resident as 
far north as New Jersey. Nests on the ground, or near it, in hollow stumps 
and logs, generally breeding in communities; eggs commonly two, creamy 
white, blotched and speckled, 22 by 1g. WHLS., ix, pl. 75, f. 1; Nurr., i, 
43; Aun. 1,-15; pl. 25 Casss mBp., 45 Coor.,.503. -.. a ee eau 
Carrion Crow. Blackish; quills very pale, almost whitish, on the under 
surface; head dusky; bill and feet grayish-yellow. Skin of the head as in 
the last species, but plumage running up the back of the neck to a point on 
the hind head; nostrils as before; tail square. Smaller than awra, in linear 
dimensions, but a heavier bird; length about 2 feet; wing 14; tail 3. The 
difference in size and shape between this species and aura is strikingly dis- 
played when the birds are flying together, as constantly occurs in the South- 
ern States ; there is also a radical difference in the mode of flight, this species 
never sailing for any distance without flapping the wings. Nesting the same : 
eggs similar, but larger, or at any rate more elongate; 34 by 2. Chiefly 
South Atlantic and Gulf States, there very numerous, far outnumbering the 
turkey buzzard, and semi-domesticated in the towns; N. regularly to North 
Carolina, thence straggling even to Massachusetts (Ji/lson; Purnam, Proc. 
Essex Inst. 1856, 223) and Maine (Boarpman, Am. Nat. iii, 498) ; Ohio 
(Audubon) ; not authenticated on the Pacific Coast. Wus., ix, pl. 75, 
{23 Numpad, 46s At. allt, ples (CASS. InebD...o: > ATRATUSS 
Oss. C. burrovianus Cass. in Bp., 6; Exttor, pl. 36, a doubtful species, is 
said to inhabit Lower California. From various accounts, it seems probable that 
the king vulture really occurs on our southern border, but this remains to be deter- 
mined. See Bartram, Travels in Florida, p. 150; Cassin in Bp., p. 6; Cougs, 
Proc. Phila. Acad. 1866, p. 49; Aten, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. ii, 1871, p. 313. 
