JVo. 3. 



REPORT UPON THE BIRDS COLLECTED ON THE SURVEY. 



CHAPTER I. 



LAND BIRDS, BY J. G. COOPER, M. D. 



ORDER I. IxAPlOllES, Birds of Prey. 

 Family VULTUKIDAE. The Vultures. 



C ATHARTES AURA, 1 1 1 i g e r . 



The Turkey Buzzard, or Vulture. 



Vultur aura, LINN. Syat. Nat. I., 122, (1766.) 



Gathartes aura, ILLIG. Prod. Syst., p. 236. 



Cathartes aura, (LINN.) CASSIN, Gen. Rep. Birds, p. 4. 



C. *eptentrimalis, DE WEID, Reise, I, 162, (1839.) 



FIGURES. Wilson Am. Orn. IX, pi. 75, fig. 1 ; Aud. B. of Am. pi. 151, oct. ed., I, pi. 2. 



SP. CH. Bare skin of head and neck, red. Female : length about 30 ; wing, 23 ; tail, 12 inches. Male smaller, (as in all 

 rapacious birds.) 



The turkey buzzard is very abundant during summer in all parts of the Territory I have 

 visited, frequenting the vicinity of prairies and river banks, and never appearing along the 

 coast. They arrived at Puget Sound about the middle of May, and flocks of them could be 

 seen daily about the carcasses of sheep; but I never observed any other species in company 

 with them. I have not seen their nests, but have no doubt that they build in the Territory. C. 



The turkey vulture was found by me both at Fort Dalles, Oregon Territory, and on Puget 

 Sound, Washington Territory. It is, however, but sparingly abundant. On the Nisqually 

 plains I frequently saw them in couples, or sometimes in small groups of half a dozen, 

 surrounding dead sheep or other carrion. 



On the route of the Northern Pacific Railroad survey I shot one of these birds on the Boi 

 des Sioux river, which is a tributary of the Red River of the North, and not far far from 

 Pembina, thus corroborating Mr. Say s statement of having observed them in that place. S 



