ZOOLOGICAL 

 SOCIETY BULLETIN 



Xo. 3$ 



Published hi/ the New York Zoological Society 



January, 1909 



NEW WORLD VULTURES. 



By C. William Beebe, 



CURATOR OF BIRDS. 



Part II. 



Photographs by Herman T. Bohlman and William I . Finley. 

 By the permission of The Century Co., New York. 



THE BLACK VULTURE. 



THIS vulture has a wide range in South 

 America, being found as far south as Ar- 

 gentina, and is probably absent only from 

 Patagonia and the higher altitudes of the Andes. 

 It is. however, rather a bird of the sea-coast, and 

 is almost invariably found there in abundance, 

 while in the interior it is outnumbered by the 

 turkey vulture. It is not found in the West In- 

 dies, but throughout Central America and Mex- 

 ico the Black Vulture is universally distributed, 

 and breeds abundantly. In the United States it 



is resident in the South Atlantic and Gulf States, 

 breeding as far north as North Carolina and the 

 lower Ohio Valley. It is only very rarely that 

 this bird straggles as far north as New York. 



The Black is the smallest of the American vul- 

 tures, measuring only two feet in length, with a 

 stretch of wing of about four and a half feet. 

 The bare skin of the head and neck is black, as is 

 the whole plumage, this dullness being relieved 

 by the underside of the wings, which are silvery. 

 This small size and the black color have led to 

 its wide-spread name of Carrion Crow. 



PARENTS OK "GENERAL" PERCHED NEAR THE NEST IN THE SAN BERNARDINO MOUNTAINS, SOUTHERN CA1 II'ORNIA. 



JAN 12190J 



