BLACK VULTURE OR CARRION CROW. 347 



TowNSEND found it on the Columbia River also, but not on the Rocky 

 Mountains. I have not seen it to the eastward of Maryland, and it is 

 not numerous even there. 



The eggs, which never exceed two, measure three inches and two- 

 twelfths in length, two inches and half an eighth in breadth, and are 

 more elongated, as well as sharper at the small end, than those of the 

 Turkey Buzzard. 



An adult female preserved in spirits presents the following charac- 

 ters : — The cells of the neck are extremely developed, one of them ex- 

 tending along its back part, being five inches in length, and communi- 

 cating by very large apertures with the lateral and anterior cells, 

 which on the left side unite into an enormous cavity, 8 inches in length, 

 extending from the jaw to the furcula, and containing the trachea, 

 which curves over to that side, as in all birds having a large crop. On 

 the left side the oesophagus is thus, as it were, free, or has no attach- 

 ment, but in front and on the right side it is connected by dense cel- 

 lular tissue with the subcutaneous muscles, which extend, in the form 

 of two large and strong expansions, along the whole of the neck, and 

 are inserted upon the anterior edge of the pectoral muscle, as in the 

 Turkey Buzzard. Besides these, there is a layer of strong transverse 

 fibres externally. 



The external nostrils are linear-oblong, direct, 7 twelfths in length, 

 li twelfth in height, pervious, without any operculum either exter- 

 nally or within, but margined above with soft skin. The aperture of 

 the eye is rather small, measuring only 5 twelfths. That of the ear is 

 of moderate size, being externally 4^ twelfths. 



The roof of the mouth is deeply concave, with a longitudinal promi- 

 nent, soft, strongly papillate ridge, and two finely papillate palatal 

 ridges. The posterior aperture of the nares is oblong, ^ inch in length, 

 margined with slender papillae, and an anterior slit 7 twelfths long, 

 similarly margined, the space between it and the lateral ridges being 

 also covered with papillae. The tongue is of moderate length, 1^ inch 

 in a direct line, broad, very deeply concave above, being as it were in- 

 duplicate, horny towards the end and on the back, its margin beau- 

 tifully fringed with a single series of slender papillae, directed back- 

 wards and inwards, the outlines decurved toward the end, and the tip 

 obtuse. 



