48 



THE RAPTORIAL BIRDS OF IOWA 



A set of two eggs was last taken at this place May 6, 1903, since 

 which time I have no record of their nesting in that vicinity. 



The eggs, one or two in number, are creamy white with reddish 

 brown and lilac markings, mostly at the larger end, and measure 

 2.75 by 1.90 inches. 



On one occasion a mother Vulture, in order to drive us from her 

 downy nestling, disgorged partially digested carrion with such pro- 

 tective effect that we were glad to seek purer air at a distance from 

 the nest. 



Not infrequently these birds are mistaken for Bald Eagles through 

 the erroneous belief that the head of the Bald Eagle is bare. 



Few animals are attacked and killed by the Turkey Vultures, but 

 any carcass will be greedily devoured; mice, fishes and skunks be- 

 ing perhaps the most unusual articles of their recorded diet. 



Fig. 15. Map showing the distribution in Iowa of the Turkey Vulture. In 



this as in succeeding distributional maps the asterisk denotes nesting 



records and the maltese cross denotes the occurrence of the bird. 



Cathartes Illiger, Prodromus, 1811, 236. Type, by subs, desig., Vultur 

 aura Linnaeus (Vigors 1825). 



Cathartes septentrionalis Wied, Riese Nord-America, I, 1839, 162. (Near 

 New Harmony, Indiana.) 



* Vultur (Cathartes 111.) aura. Say, Thomas, Major S. H. Long's Account 

 of an Expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mts., pp. 370, 377, 

 1819-20. (Engineers Cantonment, Pottawattamie county.) 



