NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 195 



dustrious scavenger, devouring at all times the putrid decomposing flesh of car- 

 casses. It is essentially gregarious, not only flying and feeding in company, but 

 resorting to the same spot to roost; breeding also in communities and sometimes 

 by single pairs; depositing its eggs on the ground, on rocks, or in hollow logs and 

 stumps, usually in thick woods or in a sycamore grove, in the bend or fork of a 

 stream. The nest is frequently built in a tree or in the cavity of a sycamore stump. 

 In the vicinity of Tampa, Florida, Mr. Stuart says, the eggs of this bird are laid in 

 February and March; in Indian Territory they are deposited in March, April and 

 May. In Arizona and Colorado it nests in the latter part of April and in May. Mr. 

 Shields states that in the region of Los Angeles, Cal., this bird begins laying about 

 April 15. He observes that although the usual nesting sites are chosen, the favorite 

 place for depositing the eggs is a little depression under a small bush or overhanging 

 rock on a steep hillside. In Ohio and other Eastern States fresh eggs may be found 

 in April and May. Notwithstanding the arguments set forth by renowned natural- 

 ists that this bird is not possessed of an extraordinary power of smell, it has been 

 proven recently by the most satisfactory experiments that the Turkey Buzzard 

 dues possess a keen sense of smell by which it can distinguish the odor of flesh at an 

 immense distance. The flight of this Vulture is truly beautiful, and no landscape 

 with its patches of green woods and grassy fields, is perfect without its dignified 

 figure, high in the air, moving in great circles; so steady, graceful and easy, and ap- 

 parently without any effort. It is a very silent bird, only uttering a hiss of defiance 

 or warning to its neighbors when feeding, or a low gutteral croak of alarm when 

 flying low overhead. The eggs are creamy or yellowish-white, variously blotched 

 and splashed with different shades of brown and usually showing other spots of 

 lavender and purplish-drab; two in number, sometimes only one; average size about 

 2.73x1.87. Six specimens measure 2.80x1.89, 2.73x1.89, 2.79x1.98, 2.80x1.91, 2.84x1.88, 

 2.87x1.90. Mr. H. R. Taylor, of Almeda, Cala., records finding early in April a set 

 of immaculate eggs of this species.* The average size of nineteen sets, thirty-eight 

 eggs, taken between April 3, and June 13, is 1.90x2.75 inches. This series is from 

 Texas, California, Kansas, Mississippi, North Carolina and New Jersey. These 

 are in the collection of Mr. C. W. Crandall, Woodside, N. Y. Mr. Raymond C. Osburn 

 reports to me a curious nesting place of the Turkey Vulture which he found in Lick- 

 ing county, 0., May 15, 1894. It was in a hollow tree twelve feet below the opening, 

 and the parent bird would not leave the nest until a hole was chopped in the tree on 

 a level with the nest. 



326. BLACK VULTURE. Catharista atrata (Bartr.) Geog. Dist. Whole of 

 tropical and warm-temperate America, south to Argentine Republic and Chili, north 

 regularly to the Carolinas and Lower Mississippi Valley, irregularly or casually to 

 Maine, New York, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, etc. 



This Vulture, called Carrion Crow, is very common along our South Atlantic 

 and Gulf States, and is resident from South Carolina southward; in many places it is 

 more numerous than the Turkey Buzzard, and its general traits, nesting habits, etc., 

 are the same, breeding in hollow logs, decayed trunks of trees, stumps, and on the 

 ground. In the Southern Atlantic cities the Black Vulture is said to be a semi- 

 domestic bird, and even protected by law. Their services as scavengers in removing 

 offal render them valuable and almost a necessity in Southern cities. A specimen of 

 this Vulture, which I mounted and now in my collection, was killed February 6, 1895, 

 fcur miles north of Reynoldsburg, Ohio. On an island near Beaufort, South Caro- 



* Ornithologist and Oologist, Vol. XIII, p. 102. 



