VULTURES 2 IS 



bush, four feet from the ground, which I took near San Diego, 

 California, May 15, 1891, measure 1.08 x 0.83, 1.06 x 0.80. 

 From two to several broods are reared in a season according 

 to locality, often in southern California nests with young being 

 found practically every month in the year. The male bird 

 does his share of the work and is very attentive to the female 

 and young. 



Order RAPTORES. Birds of Prey. 



Suborder SACORHAMPHI. American Vultures. 

 Family CATHARTID^. American Vultures. 



Key to the species of CATHARTIDiE. 



A. Wing over 19.00 ; naked skin of head and base of bill bright red. 



Turkey Vulture. 



B. Bill under 19.00; naked skin of head and base of bill blackish. 



Black Vulture. 



Genus CATHARTES Illiger. 



325. Cathartes aura (Linn.). Turkey Vulture; Turkey 



Buzzard. 



Plumage of adults : head and neck naked and with the base of the bill 

 bright red ; otherwise glossy black with grajdsh brown edgings. Immature 

 plumage: head covered with down like feathers. Wing 19.00 to 23.00; 

 culmen 1.15 ; tarsus 2.20. 



Geog. Dist. — Temperate North America from New Jersey, Saskatchewan 

 Valley, and British Columbia southward to Tierra del Fuego and the Falk- 

 land Islands. 



County Records. — Cumberland; one seen at Scarboro Beach August 5, 

 1904, (Deane, Auk 1905, p. 79) ; one at Standish in summer of 1874, (Smith, 

 F. & S. 20, p. 26). Oxford ; one taken at Denmark in March, 1892 by Abel 

 Sanborn (Mead, Me. Sportsman, July, 1898, p. 13) this bird is shown to be 

 the same one recorded erroneously by Gushee, F. & S. 1883, p. 245 as 

 taken at East Fryeburg, the wrong locality being given and likewise 

 wrongly recorded by Smith (F. & S. 20, p. 285) as a Black Vulture. Penob- 

 scot ; one seen near Bangor at Whiting's Hill, he sat for a long time with 

 his wings stretched up above his head, as the Eagle is represented on the 



