AMERICAN VULTURES. 
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this close crowding, they never seem to fight much when feeding, although one will 
at times peck and hiss at another; and at times two will tug at a particularly tough 
fragment, until it either break or the weaker bird gives up his hold.” 
The nesting-habits are very similar to those of the black vulture, although, 
instead of always laying its eggs on the bare ground, the present species will also 
nest in caverns and crevices of rocks, or in hollow trees, while it has been known 
to take possession of a deserted heron’s nest in a cactus. Generally, the smell of a 
nest is unbearable; and when disturbed the parent birds have sometimes the habit 
of disgorging the contents of their stomachs at an intruder, instead of moving. 
The young, which are covered at first with soft white down, are fed in a similar 
manner. The eggs are usually two, but may be three in number, and an instance 
of four young in one nest is recorded. In colour the eggs are creamy white, 
thickly blotched with red and chocolate. At times the nests, if such they can be 
called, are in companies, but at others singly. The only sound uttered is a kind of 
hissing wheeze, generally heard only when the birds are disturbed. 
Californian Far larger than either of the other members of the genus is the 
Vulture. Californian vulture (II. californianus), which, according to Mr. F. A. 
Lucas, may even exceed the condor in expanse of wing. In this bird there is no 
distinct ruff of downy feathers round the neck, while the general colour of the 
plumage is brownish black; the tips of the greater wing-coverts are, however, 
whitish, forming a line across the closed wing, and there is a broad band of white 
along the under side of the wing, which renders the bird easily recognised when 
flying overhead. This vulture always had a very restricted distribution, being- 
confined to the Pacific coast region of the United States from Oregon to Northern 
Lower California; and it now appears to be found only in California, where its 
home is in the almost inaccessible secondary ranges running parallel to the Sierra 
Nevada. Never very numerous, the Californian vulture has been decimated by 
the poisoned meat laid out by the stockmen for the destruction of carnivorous 
mammals; and in 1891 Mr. Lucas considered that the bird was likely to be 
exterminated before many years. More recently, however, Capt. Bendire states 
that in some of the most barren and inaccessible mountains these vultures have 
again commenced to hold their own, so that there is a possibility of their increase. 
Although from the weakness of their claws and beaks the powers of offence of 
these vultures are comparatively small in proportion to their size, yet their strength 
is very great, as is attested by the fact that four are known to have dragged the 
carcase of a young bear weighing one hundred pounds for a distance of two 
hundred yards. The flight of this bird, according to Capt. Bendire, “ is graceful 
beyond comparison, as it sails majestically overhead in gradually contracting or 
expanding circles, now gently falling with the wind, and again rising easily against 
it, without a perceptible motion of its pinions. While on the wing, it looks more 
than the peer of any of our birds, the golden eagle not excepted.” Little is known 
of its breeding-habits, but it appears that the huge nest may be placed either on 
rocks or in trees; one that is described being situated on the limb of a large redwood 
tree, at a height of seventy-five feet from the ground, and close to the stem. 
The eggs are of a uniform greenish white colour. 
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