NO. 6 REVISION OF AMERICAN VULTURES WETMORE 3 



Winters from the Ohio Valley, central Maryland (rarely in the 

 intervening mountains), and New Jersey south to southern Texas 

 (Rio Grande City), the shores of the Gulf of Mexico east to 

 southern Florida, and the southeastern Atlantic coast. 



Recorded casually in southern Arizona (Pima County), Quebec, 

 New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Labrador, Newfoundland, eastern 

 A-Iassachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine: Accidental 

 in Bermuda (one record, December 1853). 



Remarks. — The paler appearance of the wing coverts, due to the 

 broad, light brownish-gray edgings of the individual feathers, sepa- 

 rates this form from the western race meridionalis, in which many 

 individuals are of equal size. Measurements of septentrionalis from 

 birds taken during the breeding season indicate a cline from the 

 smallest in Florida to the largest in the northern area of the range. 

 The smaller individuals in the resident group in southern Florida 

 are within the upper limits of the size range of Cathartes aura aura, 

 but all that I have seen have the paler margins of the wing coverts of 

 septentrionalis. The large northern individuals move in winter 

 throughout the south to the southern limits of the form. 



Through the kindness of Dr. W. J. Breckenridge I have had the 

 loan of specimens from Minnesota which indicate that the birds of 

 the small group in Itasca County, in the northeastern part of the State, 

 while intermediate toward the western form, are nearer septentrion- 

 alis. The same is true of material from Douglas County in north- 

 eastern Kansas. These points serve to indicate a general border area 

 between the eastern and western forms. 



CATHARTES AURA MERIDIONALIS Swann 



Cathartes aura nieridiotwUs Swann, Syn. Accipitres, pt. 1, Sept. 28, 1921, p. 3. 



(Santa Marta, Province of Magdalena, Colombia.) 

 Cathartes aura teter Friedmann, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, vol. 46, Oct. 26, 



1933, p. 188. (Riverside, California.) 



Characters. — Edgings of the lesser wing coverts definitely darker, 

 browner, and somewhat less in extent, so that they are less prominent 

 than in C. a. septentrionalis; distal edgings and tips of secondaries 

 averaging very slightly darker ; size large, but with the maximum and 

 average less than in septentrionalis. 



Measurements. — Males (25 specimens), wing 487-528 (509), tail 

 237-268 (253), culmen from cere 22.2-26.6 (24.5), tarsus 60.6-65.1 

 (63.7) mm. 



Females (16 specimens), wing 495-526 (511), tail 245-272 (259), 

 culmen from cere 24.0-26.3 (25.2), tarsus 62.5-67.6 (64.9) mm. 



