4 
BIRDS OF PREY. 
them to the fanning breeze, and become abandoned to its 
accidental sports. In South America, according to Humboldt, 
they soar even in company with the Condor in his highest 
flights, rising above the summits of the tropical Andes. 
Examples of this species still wander occasionally to New Eng- 
land and to Grand Menan, and in 1887 Mr. Philip Cox reported 
the capture of two near the mouth of the Miramichi River, on the 
Gulf of St. Lawrence, in latitude 47°. It occurs regularly on the 
St. Clair Flats, in Ontario. 
The Vultures are not classed as the first of birds by the syste- 
matists of the present day. Now the singing-birds — the Oscines — 
arc considered the most highly developed, and of these the Thrush 
family is given highest rank. The Vultures are classed as the 
lowest of the birds of prey ; and this entire order has been moved 
down below the Swifts and the Woodpeckers. 
BLACK VULTURE. 
CARRION CROW. 
Catharista atrata. 
Char. Dull black ; head dusky and partially covered above with 
feathers. Length about 2 feet. 
Nest. On the ground screened by bushes, or in a stump. (No attempt 
is made to build a nest or even to lay a cushion for the eggs.) 
Eggs. 1-3 (usually 2) ; bluish white, marked with several shades of 
brown; 3.10 x 2.05. 
This smaller, black, and truly gregarious species of Vulture 
in the United States appears to be generally confined to the 
Southern States, and seems to be most numerous and familiar 
in the large maritime towns of North and South Carolina, 
Georgia, and Florida. They are also met with in several of 
the Western States, and as far up the Ohio as Cincinnati. In 
the tropical regions of America they are also very common, 
and extend at least as far as Chili. Like the . former species, 
with w'hich they associate only at meal- times, they are tacitly 
allowed a public protection for the service they render in rid- 
ding the earth of carrion and other kinds of filth. They are 
