22 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 134 
the gull held its ground, and the vulture finally gave up the attempt. 
Prisoners in charge of the vegetable gardens told me that the vultures 
were nesting during the middle of January. 
CATHARTES AURA (Linnaeus): Turkey Vulture, Noneca 
Vulture aura LINNAEUS, Systema naturae, ed. 10, vol. 1, 1758, p. 86. (Vera- 
cruz, México.) 
Turkey vultures were seen daily in flight over the island though 
never in large numbers. About January 12, with a change in weather 
conditions, the northeast trade wind blew steadily throughout the 
day, which made soaring easy, and immediately there was an increase 
in the prevalence of these birds. While I noted them regularly above 
the high forest, where occasional openings in the treetops gave a 
view of the sky, they were more often seen over the open pastures 
and along the beaches. 
Most of those that I observed near enough at hand to give me a 
clear view with binoculars, had the bare skin of the head dull red, 
indicating that they were migrants from the north, in Panama for 
the winter season. But on January 8 I noted one with the definite 
yellow lines across the back of the red head that identified it as the 
race Cathartes aura ruficollis Spix, which I have found to be the 
breeding bird of the Pacific slope of Panama, west to Chiriqui. 
SARCORAMPHUS PAPA (Linnaeus): King Vulture, Cacicon 
Vultur Papa LinNAEus, Systema naturae, ed. 10, vol. 1, 1758, p. 86. (Surinam.) 
The king vulture appears to be fairly common on Coiba Island 
though I recorded it on only three occasions. At Salinas January 23 
three adults soared high in air. Three days later near Punta Damas 
several turkey vultures flew out of the brush back of the beach, and 
when I walked in to see what had attracted them I found a great 
king vulture, in fully adult feather and color, peering down with 
its light-colored eyes from a low branch barely 40 feet away. I 
watched it for some time, and then moved along without disturbing 
it. It did not seem desirable to kill it for a specimen as I was 3 miles 
from our quarters! (There are several available from Coiba, viz, 
two adult and two immature in the Chicago Natural History Museum, 
collected by J. H. Batty May 21 to 26, 1901.) I saw another in a 
tree in an open pasture at Punta Damas February 1, and approached 
it closely, but it showed no apparent fear of me. 
