206 The Falcon-like Birds 



Other Species. There are three other species in the genus with the Turkey 

 Vulture : the Falkland Island Turkey Vulture (C. falklandicus\ found in the 

 Falkland Islands, Patagonia, and Chile, the Amazonian Turkey Vulture (C. 

 perniger) of Guiana, Amazonia, and Peru, and the small black Brazilian 

 species (C. urubitinga), the latter having uniform black wings and a yellow 

 instead of reddish head. Their habits are presumably similar to those of the 

 common species. 



The Black Vulture (Catharista urubu) is found throughout the whole of 

 tropical and warm-temperate America, ranging south to Argentina and Chile, 

 and north regularly to North Carolina and the lower Mississippi Valley. It is 

 the only member of its genus, being from twenty-three to twenty-seven inches in 

 length and having a spread of wings of about four and one-half feet. In color 

 it is uniform dull black, with the shafts of the quill-feathers white. The naked 

 skin of the head and fore neck is dusky, thus distinguishing it at once from 

 the Turkey Vulture. 



The habits of the Black Vulture are in some respects similar to those of the 

 first-mentioned species, but "it is not nearly so graceful a bird on the wing as the 

 latter, its flight being much heavier and apparently laborious, and is accom- 

 plished by considerable flappings of the wings." The Black Vulture is appar- 

 ently more or less gregarious in its habits at all seasons of the year and undoubt- 

 edly depends much more on its keen sight than its sense of smell in finding its 

 food. They breed frequently in communities, making little or no nest, and the 

 eggs, usually two in number, are always placed on the ground, under bushes, 

 old logs, or occasionally in perfectly open situations. The eggs are similar to 

 those of the Turkey Vulture except that the ground color is a pale gray-green. 



California Vulture. By far the largest of the species found in the United 

 States is the California Vulture (Gymnogyps calif ornianus) , or Condor, as it is 

 frequently called. It is from forty-four to fifty-five inches in length, with an 

 extent of wings of from eight and one-half to eleven feet, while the weight is 

 from twenty to twenty-five pounds. The color is dull black with the wing-feath- 

 ers edged and tipped with grayish or white, producing a conspicuous white area 

 which is visible when the bird is soaring. The bare portion of the head is yel- 

 lowish or orange. The California Vulture is almost confined io the state of 

 California, extending formerly as far north as the Columbia River, and south into 

 the peninsula of Lower California and possibly into northwestern Mexico. It 

 has apparently never been an abundant species and has been persecuted in 

 recent years to such an extent that it has become extremely rare, if not indeed 

 on the verge of total extermination. This unfortunate decrease in numbers has 

 been principally caused by poison which has been placed on carcasses of animals 

 by stockmen as a means of ridding the country of bears, panthers, wolves, coyotes, 

 etc. It has now become not only rare but extremely shy, and several Californian 

 ornithologists have never seen it in a wild state. It nests in wild and inaccessible 

 localities, principally among rugged rocks and cliffs, choosing usually a cavern 

 or crevice in the rocks often hundreds of feet from the ground. The egg, for 

 it usually lays but one, is of a uniform light grayish green color and unspotted. 



