CHAPTER XVI. 



AMERICAN VULTURES. 



(Super family Cathartoidea.) 

 (Family Cathartidce.) 



ULTUEES of one species or another occur in nearly 

 all parts of the world, but our forms of Ameri- 

 can Vultures constitute a family quite distinct 

 from the falconine types of them found in the 

 Old World and elsewhere. This difference has no especial refer- 

 ence to the habits of the birds in the two groups, but is seen in 

 the anatomical structure of their representatives, and in this 

 particular the distinction is a very radical one. Upon various 

 occasions during the past twenty years I have published a num- 

 ber of accounts of the Vultures of this country, including one or 

 two more or less elaborate memoirs upon their structure, illus- 

 trated by numerous plates. Several years ago, while living in 

 New Mexico, I had a Turkey Vulture alive for a number of weeks, 

 and at different times endeavored to secure satisfactory photo- 

 graphs of him, but owing to my inexperience in the art in those 

 days, my success in the matter was not nearly as good as it has 

 been recently. During the summer of 1896 my son slightly 

 wounded a fine male specimen of our common Turkey Buzzard, 

 and I kept him alive for nearly a fortnight. After he had practi- 

 cally recovered from his wounds, he was made the subject for 

 my camera upon one or two occasions, and at the second attempt 

 I succeeded in obtaining a life-size picture of his head, that for 

 the exhibition of characters and general appearance was quite 

 satisfactory. He proved to be not the easiest subject in the 

 world, and those who have ever tried this experiment can appre- 

 ciate the pride I feel upon presenting the fine reproduction of 

 my attempt shown in the accompanying figure. 



Passing by, as we must in as brief a chapter as the present one, 

 any description of that biggest of all the world's vultures, the 

 Condor of South America, and such other species as are strictly 

 confined to that country and to Central America and Mexico, I 

 shall confine my observations here to those forms only that are 

 known to regularly occur north of the southern boundary of the 

 United States. 



