

^^-Lft ^<\1> 



A California Vulture. 



The following letter from Archibald Campbell to San 

 Diego (CaU Sun, from La guna, on the border of the 

 i St, seems to refer to the California vulture of which 

 lately we are hearin^_mpre_and_jnore^_Th^JeUerjs_ 

 d^tedAugTl, and says among other things: 

 "To-day as Henry E. Clark was riding near the laguna 

 ' he noticed a large bird among some carrion crows, eating 

 at a steer which had died from a rattlesnake bite. It 

 flew up into a tree, where he shot it with a rifle, and the 

 shot broke its thigh. It then flew away among some 

 rocks, when he threw his riata over it and caught it, and 

 it tried to get away and it nearly unhorsed him Me 

 gave it another shot through the wins: and disabled it. 

 He brought it home and it measured 9ft. 3m. across the 

 wings and 4ft, Urn. long from the beak to the end ot 

 its tail. Valentine; the captain of the Indians, says it is a 

 female and not near so large as the males. The males 

 have the under part snow white, while this is pretty 

 dark. I think it is the California vulture, which 

 approaches the condor in size and has wings even longer 

 in proportion. Last Sunday, as a party of us were out on 

 the high peaks overlooking the desert, three of the birds 

 kept circling around overhead, and now and again by 

 far the biggest of the birds would swoop down suddenly 

 toward us and make such ugly demonstrations that the 

 ladies got scared and we all left on that account. I think 

 their young were in the cliffs above us and they wanted 

 to scare us awa y. The bi gg est wa s whiter underneath 

 I than the other two, and I think that it was one of the 

 smaller birds that was shot. Mrs. Wiegar from San 

 Diego, who was up here on a visit, skinned the bird, and 

 on her return will take it with her and put it on exhibtion 

 at the Chamber of Commerce. They are very rare here 

 now. Valentine says they used to be very numerous here 

 when he was young. Two years ago we used to see a 

 i solitary vulture every now and again, but he disappeared, 

 j and now these three are to be seen near the same place. 

 j This one, I think, could have easily carried off a spotted 



I fawn, a young calf or a baby.' 



In the report on the ornithology of the Death Valley ex- 

 pedition for 1891, Dr. A. K. Fisher reported this bird as 

 moderately abundant in certain localities west of the 

 Sierra Nevadas in California. Dr. Palmer reported it 

 from Frazier Mountain and near the Tejor ranch, Dr. 

 Fisher and Mr. Bailey saw one near Walker's Basin in the 

 San Joaquin Valley and at San Emiglio, and near there 

 Mr. Nelson found it quite common in October. The same 

 gentleman found it common along the coast near San 

 Simeon and in the Santa Yfiez Mountains. 



It is said that not long ago a Mr. W. A. Burris killed 

 one of these birds near Sargent's, San Benito county, 

 California, with a charge of No. 9 shot. The specimen, 

 which weighed 251bs. and measured 9£ft. in extent of 

 I wings, was preserved, and is now in the collection of the 

 California Academy of Sciences. 



\^V.s^v^ ^v<v<Sl^<^a >^ki_-Ac WV\V 



VK 





