230 CHAPTERS ON THE NATURAL HISTORY 



will scold and peck at one another, and sometimes two birds will 

 get hold of the same piece of meat and pull against each other 

 until it breaks or until the weaker one has to give it up." (Life 

 Hist. Am. Birds.) 



In the South, as in the Gulf States and the seaports and for- 

 ests of the entire length of the eastern coast of Mexico, I have 

 seen a far greater number of Black Vultures (Gatharista atrata) 

 than the Turkey Buzzards. The two species do not associate 

 together, and by the careful observer are very easilj 7 told apart. 

 Both in the matter of habits and flight they are distinctly differ- 

 ent. Black vultures actually swarm in the neighborhood of 

 many of our Southern cities. Around the slaughter houses be- 

 low Xew Orleans I have been able to count as many as a thou- 

 sand at a time; the ground, the fences, housetops, and many 

 other places being black with them. They are as tame as barn- 

 yard fowls, and are by no means difficult to capture, though I 

 advise against the experiment, especially if they have just been 

 heartily feeding upon some offal, more odorous and ripe than 

 otherwise. Wilson gives us some excellent accounts of these 

 birds; in fact, he has been more widely quoted than any other 

 one of our ornithologists who may have written of their natural 

 history. Darwin, as well as Gosse, were likewise much inter- 

 ested in these famous birds, and contributed not a little to what 

 has been published concerning them. 



Bendire, in his work, has said " the Black Vulture is more or 

 less gregarious in its habits at all times, breeding frequently in 

 small communities, making little or no nest, and the eggs, usu- 

 ally two in number, are, perhaps with exceedingly rare excep- 

 tions, always placed on the ground, in canebrakes, under bushes, 

 old logs, on rocks, and again in perfectly open and unsheltered 

 situations. Occasionally but one egg will be laid, and very rarely 

 three. In the more Southern States nidification begins about 

 the first of March, and later northward. 



" Probably but one brood is raised in a season. The young 

 when first hatched are covered with light buff-colored down, 

 and they are fed in the same manner as the young of the preced- 

 ing species." [C. aura.] 



None of our vultures have the restricted range that the Cali- 

 fornia vulture (Pseudogryphus calif ornianus) has, it being found 

 only in a very limited area of the State the name of which it 

 bears. Formerly this species was far more abundant, and had a 



