/zz 
278 Mr. Sclater on the Egg and Nestling of the Californian Vulture . 
/ 38. Podiceps dominicus (Linn.). 
Lake of Duenas, October 13th, 1859. 
/ 39. Sterna frenata, Gambel : Baird, Rep. p. 864. 
This skin I bought in Coban, and am not sure where it was 
procured. 
XXXIV.— Note on the Egg and Nestling of the Californian 
Vulture. By Philip Lutley Sclater. 
(Plates VIII. and IX.) 
Mr. J. II. Gurney has kindly supplied, for the use of this 
Journal, the two accompanying plates, which represent the nest¬ 
ling and egg of the Californian Vulture ( Cathartes californiamis). 
The} 7 are copied from drawings (made by Mr. Reeve of the Nor¬ 
wich Museum) of the specimens (forwarded to Mr. Gurney by his 
correspondent, Mr. A. S.Taylor, of Monterey 7 ), which have already 
been alluded to in these pages*. The circumstances of the dis¬ 
covery of the two nests, one of which contained the young bird, 
supposed to be about from five to seven days old (Plate VIII.), 
and the other the egg (Plate IX.), having been already given, 
as also a sufficient description of the specimens, it is not necessary 
to repeat them. But it may be as well to remark, that in Dr. 
Brewer's valuable work on f North American Oology' (p. 7), the 
egg of the Californian Vulture is described, from a drawing of a 
specimen said to have been laid in confinement at the Jardin des 
Plantes, as somewhat different from the one represented here. 
The dimensions there giveu (3|-£ by ) would indicate a con¬ 
siderably smaller egg than the present specimen. The ring of 
reddish-brown blotches in the egg of the Jardin des Plantes is 
perhaps of less significance, as many of the Vulturidre lay some¬ 
times spotted and sometimes colourless eggs (see Mr. Salvin's 
remarks on the eggs of Gyps fulvus in this Journal for last year, 
p. 179). But it is certainly a reversal of what is generally the 
case, to find a white egg laid by a Vulture in a wild state, and 
a coloured egg laid by a bird in confinement; and, on the 
whole, it would be well not to place too much confidence in the 
drawing spoken of by Dr. Brewer. 
* See ' Ibis/ 1859, p.469. 
