AMERICAN VULTURES: TURKEY VULTURE 
151 
of the birds of prey as in some of the other orders, the indigestible 
portions of food, as feathers, hair, bones, and the hard coverings of 
insects, are formed into balls by the movements of the stomach, after 
the nutritious portions have been absorbed. These masses, which are 
known as ‘pellets, 1 are regurgitated from the stomach before a new 
supply of food is taken” (Fisher). For purposes of recognition, the 
varied patterns of the wing linings serve well (see Plate 9). 
References.—Fisher, A. K., U. S. Dept. Agr. Bull. 3, 1893; Yearbook Dept. 
Agr. for 1894.— Gardner, Leon L., Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. 67, art. 19, pp. 
7, 9, 15-16, pis. 2, 6, 9.— Gloyd, Howard Kay, Wilson Bull., XXXVII, pp. 
133-149, 1925 (helps to identification).— Seton-Thompson, Ernest, Bird-Lore, 
III, 187-189, 1901 (recognition marks).— Thayer, G. H., Concealing-Coloration 
in the Animal Kingdom, pp. 80-81, 1909. 
AMERICAN VULTURES: Family Cathartidae 
The carrion-feeding Vultures differ from the Birds of Prey in largely 
naked head and in form of bill and feet. The bill is little-raptorial, 
lengthened, little-hooked, comparatively weak; the feet are scarcely 
raptorial, with weak, little-curved claws, small hind toe, elevated; front 
toes webbed at base. 
TURKEY VULTURE: Cath&rtes aura septentrionalis Wied 
Plate 9 
Description. — Length: 26-32 inches, wing 20-23, extent about 6 feet, tail 
11-12, bill 1, tarsus 2.3, middle toe, 2.5. Adults: Bare head dull crimson; upper 
parts blackish, with a greenish and violet gloss, feathers of back, wing coverts and 
secondaries margined with grayish brown; icing linings blackish 
strikingly contrasted with ash gray of quills; underparts uniform 
dull black; iris brown, bill whitish, cere red, legs and feet whitish. 
Young in juvenal plumage: Like adults, but bill and naked 
skin blackish, wring coverts wdth less distinct brownish margins. 
Range. —Breeds in Austral and Transition Zones from 
southern British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Alberta, southern 
Manitoba, northern Minnesota to southeastern Ontario, and Fig. 24. Turkey 
southern New England south to Gulf coast, northern Mexico, Vulture 
and southern Lower California; winters in most of its Atlantic 
slope range but westward retires south to the Ohio Valley, Nebraska, and California 
(one winter record for British Columbia). 
State Records. —[There are almost no positive breeding 
records of the Turkey Vulture in New Mexico; in fact there seem 
to be only three records of the actual finding of the nest in the 
State, but since the bird is found all summer over most of the 
lower parts of New r Mexico, most commonly below r 7,000 feet, 
during May and June, it undoubtedly breeds over much of this 
area. The first nest recorded w r as found by E. F. Pope, May 25, 
1919, 12 miles southwest of Vaughn in a crevice in rocks, 
24 inches from the entrance. The two characteristic eggs had recently been 
sucked. One of the vultures, presumably the parent, was seen near by. 
The second nest recorded was reported to Bailey, in April, 1924, from the canyon 
below the Carlsbad Cave and contained white downy young. By the middle of 
Fig. 25. Foot 
of Turkey 
Vulture 
