THE BIEDS OF NEW JERSEY. 157 



Summer or winter one seldom fails to see Turkey Vultures in 

 southern New Jersey soaring high overhead in graceful flight, or in 

 the former season often assembling in considerable numbers where 

 some choice piece of carrion offers them an opportunity to enjoy a 

 feast. The wrangling, clumsy birds, with their worn and dingy 

 plumage and naked pink heads, as they tear and devour the entrails 

 of some dead animal, offer a sharp contrast to the graceful navigators 

 of the air, and when we add the all-pervading odors that attend such 

 a feast, most persons are content to view their Turkey Vultures when 

 sailing at a distance. 



Their nesting site is some low; dark wood or some pile of rocks 

 which furnishes a safe retreat, and here the two little Vultures remain 

 clad in pure white 'down until they have reached the size of a hen, 

 when the black feathers begin to appear. They do not stray far from 

 the spot where they were hatched, and are visited by the parents, 

 and fed by regurgitation, the carrion passing from their overloaded 

 crops into the throats of the young. The latter not infrequently 

 again disgorge as a means of defense against too inquisitive intruders. 



326 Catharista urubu Vieillot. 

 Black Vulture. 



Adult. Length, 23-27. Wing, 16.50-17.50. Plumage, dull black; under 

 surface of wings near the base, whitish ; naked head, blackish ; bill, dusky. 



A very rare straggler from the South. Mr. Robert Lawrence says, 

 "A specimen was shot at Sandy Hook during the spring of 1877; it 

 is now in my collection," 1 and Dr. C. C. Abbott (1868) says, "Proba- 

 bly the rarest of the visiting species," but gives us no clue as to what 

 his statement was based upon. There is no other record for the State. 



1 Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, 1880, p. 116. 



