196 



NESTS AND EOGS OF 



t^na, Mr. Walter Hoxle found the Black Vulture nesting under a dense growth of 

 yucca. No attempt was made at forming a nest, or even excavating a hollow. The 

 eggs are laid far in under the intertwining stems of the yucca and in the semi- 

 shadows were quite hard to be seen. Mr. Hoxie states that the parent birds have 

 the habit of always following the same path in leaving and approaching the nesting 

 place. By these paths, which were often winding, he Vas able to discover the 

 eggs. Both sexes assist in incubation and two eggs constitute the nest complement. 

 Mr. Hoxie never observed a bird sitting on a single egg, and so far as he was able 

 to determine the period of incubation is nearly thirty days; eggs were taken from 

 May 2 to May 26. He states that Mr. Alfred Cuthbert took a set of three eggs in 1884. 



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.126 Ulack Vulture (Fro[ii Brehm).. 



The eggs are generally broadly elliptical-ovate in shape and similar in color to those 

 of the Turkey Vulture — bluish-white, blotched and spotted with very dark brown 

 and umber — not so densely marked as those of Cathartes aura; average size 3.10x2.04. 

 Mr. Crandall's series of this bird's eggs consists of twenty-four sets, forty-eight eggs, 

 mostly taken in Texas, some in Mexico, between February 28 and June 5. The 

 .verage size of this series is 2.99x1.99 inches. 



327. SWALLOW-TAILED KITE. Elanoides forflcatus (Linn.) Geog. Dist.— 

 Tropical and warm-temperate parts of continental America, north regularly up the 

 Mississippi Valley to Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, etc. Casually east to Pennsylvania 

 and Southern New England. 



