424 THE BLACK VULTURE. 



are, but in countries where humidity and heat soon raise offal to a high degree 

 of nidorous efficiency the Black Vultures are entitled to and receive hearty 

 protection. These birds are stockier and heavier than our Turkey Buzzards. 

 Their flight also is more labored, consisting of a series of short flaps followed 

 by a sail in regular alternation. 



The occurrence of this bird within our borders has been reckoned as little 

 less than accidental, but observers in the southern part of the state should be 

 on the lookout for a Vulture which flaps its wings conspicuously and lacks 

 the separated tips of the primaries. It is noteworthy that two of the recent 

 records of its appearance in the state were made in winter, Madisonville, Dec. 

 20, 1867, and Reynoldsburg, Feb. 6, 1895. 



Mr. Raymond W. Smith, in his "List of the Birds of Warren County, 

 Ohio," 1 published in 1891, has this to say of the Black Vulture in that region : 

 "A rather uncommon but regular summer resident from March to October. 

 in the northeast part of the county, along the Little Miami and Caesar's Creek 

 hills, where it breeds and is each year becoming more common. On the farm 

 of Commissioner \Y. J. Collett is a large Sycamore tree, in the hollow of 

 which a pair of Turkey Vultures had nested for a number of years. A few 

 years ago, Mr. Collett informs me, when the Turkey Vultures had completed 

 their nest they were driven from it by a pair of Black Vultures, which took 

 possession and have used it as a nesting place each year since. This is, I 

 think, the northernmost record of this Vulture breeding, and the first record 

 of its breeding in the state. The first positive record of its appearance in the 

 country I have, is my own observation of a pair near Lebanon, in December. 

 1883. The Qesar's Creek country residents vary greatly as to the time of 

 the first appearance of the 'new kind of buzzard/ but it was about eight or 

 ten years ago, since which time they have steadily increased in numbers, and, 

 although even now they are by no means common, yet they are regular sum- 

 mer residents and breed here each year." 



1 See Journal of the Cincinnati Society of Natural History, July, i! 



