1 68 Ridgway on the California Vulture. [April 



based on "male and female specimens shot by Mr. Douglas, in 

 lat. 45J N., and now in the Museum of the Zoological Society," 

 state that "the tail is even, and consists of fourteen feathers" ; so 

 there can be no doubt that the number of tail-feathers in this 

 species is variable, and therefore not available as a generic char- 

 acter. 



In my article referred to above, it is stated that this species is 

 "fully the peer of the Condor in size, the wing and tail averag- 

 ing even decidedly greater. It is not, however, quite so strongly 

 built, the beak and feet being proportionately weaker." Com- 

 parative measurements were there given of fully adult males of 

 the two species, showing that by a similar method of deduction, 

 the alar expanse should be about 9 feet 2 inches in 6". g7-yphus, 

 and 9 feet 8 inches in P. califomianus. I was not aware at 

 the time that the latter figures were exactly those of an adult 

 obtained by Douglas, as recorded by Swainson and Richardson 

 (1. c), nor had I read Professor Orton's paper in the 'Annals 

 and. Magazine of Natural History.' Vol. VIII, 1S71, pp. 185- 

 192, entitled 'On the Condors of the Equatorial Andes,' in 

 which the exaggerations of writers in respect to the size of the 

 Condor are the subject specially treated, and from which the 

 following is quoted: "A full-grown male from the most cele- 

 brated locality in the Andes, now in Vassar College, has a 

 stretch of nine feet. Humboldt never found one to measure 

 over nine feet ; and the largest specimen seen by Darwin was 

 eight and a half feet from tip to tip. An old male in the 

 Zoological Gardens of London measures eleven feet. Von 

 Tschudi says he found one with a spread of fourteen feet ten 

 inches; but he invalidates his testimony by the subsequent state- 

 ment that the full-grown condor measures from twelve to thirteen 

 feet." % 



The two adult Californian Vultures in Mr. Henshavv's collec- 

 tion, both measured and weighed by Mr. Henshaw before skin- 

 ning, were males ; one spread eight feet nine inches and weighed 

 twenty pounds, while the other spread nine feet one inch and 

 weighed twenty-three pounds. Mr. Henshaw, while in the 

 locality where his specimens were shot, was informed by perfectly 

 reliable persons of two killed the previous year which spread 

 eleven feet, by careful measurement. 



Mr. Henshavv's specimens are neither of them very old birds, 

 having the bill still tinged with horn-color, and are decidedly 



