BIRDS OF PREY. 



Family CATHARTID^E. AMERICAN VULTURES. 

 57. Pseudogryphus californianus (SHAW). 



CALIFORNIA VULTURE. 



Vultur californianus SHAW, Naturalists' Miscellany, iv, 1797, PL ccci. 

 Pseudogryphus californianus RIDGWAY, History North American Birds, III, 1874, 338. 



(B 2, C 364, R 453, C 536, U 324.) 



GEOGRAPHICAL RANGE: Pacific coast region of the United States, from Oregon 

 southward, to northern Lower California; (southern Utah ?) 



The breeding range of the California Vulture, as far as known, is restricted 

 to the State of California and to a comparatively small portion thereof. To 

 define it more definitely it may be located in that part of the State situated 

 between the Sierra Nevada and the Pacific Ocean, between latitude 32 30' 

 and 38. It is possible that a few of these birds breed in the mountains of 

 Lower California also. 



Mr. Walter E. Bryant in his "Catalogue of the Birds of Lower Cali- 

 fornia," makes the following statement in reference to this species: "Mr. 

 Anthony is the only one who has reported this species from the peninsula; 

 he has observed them at several places from the sea level to an altitude of 

 11,000 feet. From the fact of their primary and secondary quills being prized 

 by Mexican and Indian gold miners for use in carrying gold dust, an oppor- 

 tunity to kill a vulture is never allowed to pass unimproved." 1 



Col. N. S. Goss, of Topeka, Kansas, tells me that this Vulture is occa- 

 sionally found on the Mexican side of our border, in Lower California, and 

 is said to breed there in small numbers. 



No other of our larger Raptores has such a restricted range. It has 

 been reported as being seen as far north as the Columbia River, and even 

 on Vancouver Island, by some of our earlier ornithologists, but I believe 

 has not been met with there within recent years. Stragglers have been 

 reported from southern Utah and the vicinity of Fort Yuma on the Colorado 

 River. 



This Vulture is readily recognized by its superior size and the con- 

 spicuous white area visible on the lower parts of its long and powerful 

 wings when soaring through space. Its flight is graceful beyond comparison 

 as it sails majestically overhead in gradually contracting or expanding circles, 

 now gently falling with the wind and again rising easily against it, without 



1 Proceedings California Academy Sciences, 2d series, Vol. u, 1889, p. 278. 



157 



