158 LIFE HISTOKIES OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



a perceptible motion of its pinions. While on the wing it looks more than 

 the peer of any of our birds, the Golden Eagle not excepted. 



Even when comparatively common during the years of 1866-1868, I do 

 not remember ever noticing a single bird of this species on the eastern slopes 

 of the Sierra Nevada. At that time I was stationed at Camp Independence, 

 in Inyo County, California, while directly west of the mountains, not more 

 than a hundred miles in a bee line, these birds were then moderately 

 abundant on the great plains of the Tular(i Valley; and I have seen assem- 

 blies of them numbering fi'om six to fifteen on several occasions. However, 

 they were never so plentiful at any time as its smaller relative, the Turkey 

 Vulture. Why the range of this Vulture should be so restricted is hard to 

 explain, but to this its rapid decrease is undoubtedly due, and poison has so 

 far been the principal agent. 



The home of the California Vulture is among the almost inacesslble 

 cliffs of the minor mountain ranges running parallel to the Sierra Nevada. 

 Stockraising has increased enormously in southern California during the past 

 twenty years, and these fastnesses have been completely overrun by stock- 

 men to find pasture for their flocks during the hot summers when everything 

 is dried up in the valleys. Necessity compelled this invasion of the retreats 

 of numerous predatory carnivora, like the grizzly bear, the panther, lynx, 

 and the prairie wolf. These, as a matter of course, preyed on the calves 

 and flocks of sheep that were to be found almost everywhere in the moun- 

 tains at that time, to be had for the taking, and they naturally enough 

 committed a great deal of damage. 



The simplest and certainly the safest way for the stockmen to get rid 

 of such undesirable neighbors was to bait them with poisoned carcasses. 

 This means was resorted to almost everwhere, and generally with consider- 

 able success. 



The Vultures, too, with their keen sight and scent, found many of these, 

 to them, tempting baits, and being sociable in disposition many of these birds 

 were destroyed by this means, so that by this time comparatively few are said 

 to be left. 



From recent information it appears, however, that within the past few 

 years these birds have again commenced to hold their own, and in a few of the 

 more barren and inaccessible mountain ranges in the vicinity of Santa Barbara 

 they do not seem to be decreasing, and may in time regain their former 

 numbers. 



Mr. A. L. Parkhurst writes me to the same efi^ect from Monterey, Cali- 

 fornia. He says: "They are still abundant in the wild and rugged districts of 

 this county, are extremely shy, perfectly capable of taking care of themselves, 

 and breed mostly in inaccessible cliff's. One is rarely shot. 



"They are retiring from the presence of civilization, as it demands the 

 conversion of the large cattle ranges into small farms. I doubt if they are 

 decreasing in numbers. I have seen over a dozen a day many times." 



