[i8o] BIRDS OF OREGON 



19x3, containing two fresh eggs, and Patterson reported egg dates from 

 May 2. to June 10 in Klamath and Jackson Counties. 



The Turkey Buzzard lives on carrion that it finds by searching the 

 landscape from a vantage point high in the air. There has been a great 

 deal of controversy as to whether sight alone is used in locating the food 

 supply or sight aided by a keen sense of smell. 



California Condor: 



Gymnogyfs calif ornianus (Shaw) 



DESCRIPTION. "Wing 30 or more; head and entire neck bare, skin smooth; plumage 

 of under parts lanceolate or pencillate; head much elongated, forehead flattened; 

 nostril small, its anterior end acute; bill small, mandibles broader than deep; wings 

 folding to or beyond end of square tail. Adults: head and neck bare, yellow, or 

 orange in life; bill whitish or pale yellowish, plumage sooty blackish; outer webs 

 of greater wing coverts and secondaries grayish, wing coverts tipped with white 

 and outer secondaries edged with white; axillars and under wing coverts pure white. 

 Young: like adults, but neck more or less covered with sooty grayish down, bill and 

 naked skin blackish; brown edgings of feathers of upper parts producing a scaled 

 effect; white of under wings and gray webbing of coverts and secondaries wanting. 

 Length: 44-55, extent 8^2 to nearly n feet; weight 2.0-2.5 pounds, wing 30-35, tail 

 15-18, bill 1.50." (Bailey) Nesf: None, eggs laid in rocky caves or in decaying 

 stumps or logs. Eggs: i or z, greenish white. 



DISTRIBUTION. General: At present restricted to Coast Ranges from San Benito 

 County, California, to Los Angeles County and northern Lower California. Formerly 

 reported to Columbia River. In Oregon: Extinct, but reported by early ornithologists. 



LEWIS AND CLARK (1814) wrote that the California Condor (Plate 2.7, A) 

 was "not rare" near the mouth of the Columbia, November 30, 1805, and 

 January i, 1806; that it was abundant at Deer Island, March 2.8, 1806; 

 and that it was seen again in Oregon, April 4, 1806. Douglas (182.8) shot 

 a male and female "in latitude 45.30.15., longitude 12.1.3.12..," which is 

 near Multnomah Falls. Townsend (1839) listed it for the territory. 

 Newberry (1857) reported it as "rare and not seen by us." Suckley did 

 not see it, although on a constant lookout for it; but Cooper reported 

 that in January 1854 he saw a bird that he was certain was this species 

 (Cooper and Suckley 1860). He made a number of trips up and down the 

 Columbia in the 50*8 but found only the one bird. Cooper stated: 



The Californian Vulture visits the Columbia river in fall, when its shores are lined with 

 great numbers of dead salmon, on which this and other vultures, besides crows, ravens, and 

 many quadrupeds, feast for a couple of months. 



Barnston (1860) gave a detailed account of the capture of a California 

 Vulture at Fort Vancouver in the spring of 182.7 and told of the great joy 

 with which Douglas received it. This interesting bit of early history was 

 later quoted by Fleming (192.4). 



All the numerous subsequent references to the California Vulture as an 



