GEOGEAPHICAL DTSTEIBTJTION OF THE ACCIPITEES. 21 



18. Ehikogetphus atjea. (Map YI.) 



R, AURA (L.) ; Ridgw. N. A. Birds, iii. p, 344. 



CEnops aura (L.); Sharps, Cat. B. i. p. 25. 



Hab. Dr. Coues gives a very concise account of the range of this bird, 

 which I extract from his ' Birds of the North-west :' — " Although more par- 

 ticularly an inhabitant of the warmer parts of America, and most numerous 

 in the Southern States, along with the Black Vulture (Catharistes atratus), 

 the Turkey Buzzard is nevertheless found all over the United States and a 

 little way into British America. On the Atlantic coast its ordinary limit 

 is Long Island ; Audubon's data were incomplete in rendering his state- 

 ment that it is never seen beyond New Jersey. It has been repeatedly 

 observed in southern New England, and at least once in Maine. Its 

 Nova-Scotia record, as remarked by F -'c 'j-gvygr, is vague, and probably 

 unfounded; and even its New-Englana- Occurrences are rare, if not alto- 

 gether casual. It is included in Mr. M'llwraith's list of the birds of 

 Hamilton, Canada West, with the remark that it is a regular summer visi- 

 tor to the extensive flats near Chatham and along the shores of Lake 

 Saint Clair. In the interior it regularly goes further north than on the coast. 

 Mr. Trippe found it abundant in Minnesota, where it breeds ; and Sir John 

 Richardson's well-known record fixes its northern limit at about latitude 

 63°, in the region of Saskatchewan, where it arrives in June. The highest 

 point where I ever saw it myself, up to the date of present writing, was 

 Fort Randall, lat. 43° 11', on the Missouri : at the close of the most ter- 

 rific storm of the season of 1 872-3, memorable for its severity, five or 

 six birds came sailing over the fort. This was on the 15th of April ; 

 none had been observed previously after October ; and I do not think it 

 usually passes the inclement season at this point. 



"This brings us to consider the resident range of the species as com- 

 pared with its summer dispersion. It has not been observed to winter on 

 the Atlantic beyond New Jersey, and even in that State is more numerous 

 in summer than in winter. But at Washington, D. C, my home for a 

 number of years, where the bird is very common, I noticed no material di- 

 minution of its numbers during the colder months. The same is the case 

 in both ihe Carolinas, where I constantly observed it during a residence of 

 three or four years. In the interior it appears to winter higher up ; thus 

 Mr. Trippe saw it late in October, and again in December, in Minnesota, 

 But the last may have been an unusual occurrence; probably the parallel 

 of 40°, or rather the isothermal corresponding to this latitude on the 

 Atlantic coast, may approximately indicate the line of its northernmost 

 winter residence." 



Captain Blakistone's observations on the Turkey Vulture in British 

 North America are as follows : — " A specimen was shot at Red- River Set- 

 tlement on the 27th of April ; observed at Fort Carlton near the forks of 

 the Saskatchewan river in lat, 53° on May 7th, and again on the 7th of 



