2 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I46 



the bird collections in the Museum of the University of Cincinnati, 

 very kindly made special arrangements that allowed study of the 

 large series of vultures in the Herbert Brandt collection under his 

 charge. Curators of other collections have aided in allowing examina- 

 tion and, when necessary, in the loan of skins for comparison with 

 the series in Washington. 



The account that follows is a summary of the characters and distri- 

 bution of the species of the genus, with their geographic races. 



CATHARTES AURA (Linnaeus): Turkey Vulture 

 Bare head and neck in adult birds in life red, in one race lined 

 narrowly across the back of the cranium with yellowish or greenish 

 white; skin of the side and front of the neck near its base smooth, 

 without caruncles ; upper hindneck in adult bare. 



Found in the Americas from the northern temperate area of North 

 America through the tropics to the temperate regions of the far south 

 where these birds range to Patagonia, Tierra del Fuego, and the Falk- 

 land Islands. 



CATHARTES AURA SEPTENTRIONALIS Wied 



Cathartes septenirionalis Wied, Reise Nord-Amer., vol. 1, 1839, p. 162. (Fox 



River, near New Harmony, Indiana.) 

 Cathartes aura carolincnsis "Townsend" Friedmann, U.S.Nat.Mus. Bull. 50, 



pt. 9, Sept. 29, 1950, p. 44. (Nomen nudum; lapsus calami for Cathartes aura 



septcntrionalis as listed by C. W. Townsend, Mem. Nuttall Orn. Club, no. 5, 



Aug. 1920, p. 97.) 



Characters. — Borders of lesser wing coverts paler than in other 

 races, averaging wider, and therefore more prominent; distal sec- 

 ondaries with paler brown borders and tips ; size large, wing 509- 

 545 mm. 



Measurements. — Males (43 specimens), wing 509-545 (526), tail 

 250-288 (267), culmen from cere 22.7-26.8 (24.6, average of 40), 

 tarsus 61.7-73.0 (66.0) mm. 



Females (35 specimens), wing 518-552 (535), tail 255-292 (275), 

 culmen from cere 23.7-27.2 (25.3, average of 29), tarsus 61.7-73.0 

 (66.0) mm. 



Range. — Breeds in eastern North America from eastern Minnesota 

 (Itasca County, rarely), central Wisconsin (Oconto County, one 

 record), south-central Michigan, southern Ontario, central New York, 

 southwestern Massachusetts, and Connecticut, south through eastern 

 Iowa, Missouri, and Arkansas to Louisiana, the Gulf coast, and 

 southern Florida : Intergrades with C. a. meridionalis in Minnesota, 

 Kansas, Oklahoma, and eastern Texas. 



