CATHARTES AURA: TURKEY BUZZARD. 135 



FAMILY CATHARTID^:*: AMERICAN 

 VULTURES. 



TURKEY BUZZARD. 

 CATHARTES AURA (L.) III. 



Chars. Blackish brown ; quills ashy gray on their under surface ; 

 head red ; feet flesh-colored ; bill white. Skin of head corru- 

 gated, sparsely beset with bristle-like feathers ; plumage com- 

 mencing in a circle on the neck ; nostrils very large and open ; 

 tail rounded. Length, about 2 feet ; extent, 6.00 ; wing, 2.00 ; 

 tail, i.oo. 



This well-known bird is entered on Dr. Coues' list of 

 1868 as a rare or occasional visitor, chiefly in more 

 southern portions of New England, with note of one 

 Maine occurrence, and of its regular presence in summer 

 near Chatham, and along the shores of Lake Sinclair, in 

 Canada West. Mr. Merriam has later given an excel- 

 lent resume of occurrences, which we transcribe : 



" A rare visitor from the south, at present, although 

 once 'not uncommon/ according to Linsley, who further 

 states : ' I have known it in Connecticut from a child, 

 having at that period counted twenty in a flock in 



* The American genera Sarcorhamphus, Pseudogryphus, Ca- 

 thartes, and Catharista form a group of superfamily value, which 

 may be termed CATHARTIDES, constituting one of the primary 

 divisions of the Raptores or Birds of Prey, the others being Gypo- 

 gerani, Accipitres proper (incl. Vulturida) and Striges, though 

 more different from the others collectively than these are from 

 one another. C. 



