R A P T R E S. 



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eating with each other ; wings long ; primaries pointed ; tail rather 

 long, slightly rounded. 



Entire plumage black, usually many feathers narrowly tipped with 

 brown ; quills with a grayish tinge ; greater coverts tipped with white, 

 which forms a transverse bar on the wing. Bill yellowish-white ; iris 

 carmine ; head and neck reddish-orange and yellow. 



Total length about forty-five inches ; wing thirty-one inches ; tail 

 fifteen inches. 



Hab. — California and Oregon. Specimen in Nat. Mus. Washington, 

 and Mus. Acad. Philadelphia. 



Obs. — This large and powerful vulture is peculiar to the countries 

 of Western North America, where, during all seasons, except that de- 

 voted to incubation, it appears to prefer the vicinity of rivers, and sub- 

 sists, in a great measure, on dead fishes. It is the largest bird of its 

 family yet ascertained to inhabit North America. 



This bird inhabits the whole of the regions between the Kocky 

 Mountains and the Pacific Ocean, from Mexico to Russian America ; 

 most abundant in California. It rears its young in the elevated and 

 wooded districts, where it is said to build a huge nest of twigs and 

 grasses in a rock or precipice, and, at other seasons, comes down to the 

 plains or borders of the ocean. 



2. Cathaetes urbicola, Des Murs. — The West India Vulture. 



Catliartes urhimla, Des Murs, Rev. et Mag. Zool. 1853, p. 146. 

 " Vultur urLis-incola, RiccoRD." — Des Murs, as above. 



Not figured. 



Large ; about the size of C. calif ornianus. Naked skin of head and 

 neck wine-red, with scattered warty granulations. Upper parts lus- 

 trous blue-black ; under surface of quills grayish-white ; tail equal at 

 the end ; beak black, large and strong, rather high and wide ; upper 

 mandible straight, curved only towards the point; nostrils naked, 

 pierced diagonally ; iris white ; feet strong, wine-red, with gray lines ; 

 claws feebly curved ; middle toe very long, united at its base to the 



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