AVES CATHARTID/E. 549 



lores and top of the head are sometimes decorated with wart-like papillae, 

 pearly white in color. Upper neck naked and colored like the head ; lower 

 neck feathered all around, black, with bluish shade. 



Back : Back, rump and upper tail-coverts, black, with purplish blue shade. 



Tail : Black, with a bluish shade, seen from above ; from below, more or 

 less ashy grey ; shafts brown from above ; yellow-white from beneath. 



Wings: Black, with purple-blue gloss; the primaries dull brownish 

 black, with shafts deep brown above and yellow-white from beneath. The 

 secondaries paler than the primaries and not glossed or with any reflec- 

 tions ; the edges of the secondaries, scapulars and wing-coverts with mar- 

 gins of light ashy brown ; this margin is not abrupt and varies much in 

 width and tone in different individuals. The primaries are ashy, when 

 seen from beneath ; the lower wing-coverts and axillaries black. 



Lower parts : Uniform dull black, darker than above, with a bare crop 

 patch on the upper chest. 



Bill : Varies from pale yellowish white, with a pure white tip, to pure 

 chalky white. 



Feet: Legs and feet pale yellowish brown. 



Iris: Deep hazel-brown. 



The sexes do not differ in appearance. 



Immature birds are similar to the adults, but the general color is 

 brownish black, the bare skin of the head and neck livid dusky, the bill 

 deep horn-brown and the feet and legs of a light shade. 



Downy young are nearly pure white ; the head is naked, as is the upper 

 neck, and dusky leadish in color. 



Geographical Range. — North America, breeding only in the southern 

 part of its range, but migrating more or less regularly north to New Eng- 

 land and New York on the Atlantic side ; in the interior migrating to Sas- 

 katchewan, and on the Pacific side to British Columbia, about 49° north. 

 The whole of Mexico, Central America and the West Indies; South 

 America south to Patagonia and Chili ; not reaching far into either terri- 

 tory ; the Rio Negro region of Patagonia. 



With some hesitation we have defined the southern range of the Turkey 

 Buzzard ; but if we consider this bird specifically distinct from the form 

 generally found in Chili, in Patagonia, at the Straits of Magellan, in 

 Tierra del Fuego and the Falkland Islands, the above account of the dis- 

 tribution of C aura in its southern range must be accepted. While the 



