and least accessible parts of the mountain valleys. The nest is large, composed
of strong thorny twigs and grass, in every way similar to the nests of the eagle
tribe, hut more slovenly constructed. The same pair resort for several years to
the same nest, bestowing little trouble or attention in repairing it. They lay two
nearly spherical jet-black eggs, about the size of those of a goose. They hatch
generally about the first of June, and the period of incubation is twenty-nine or
thirty-one days. The young are covered with thick whitish down, and are incapable
of leaving the nest until the fifth or sixth week. Their food is carrion, or dead
fish: in no instance will they attack any living animal, unless it be wounded and
unable to walk. Their senses of smelling * and seeing are remarkably keen. In
searching for prey, they soar to a great altitude, and on discovering a wounded
deer, or other animal, they follow its track until it sinks, when they descend precipitately
on their object. Although only one bird may be at first in possession of
the carcass, few minutes elapse before the prey is surrounded by great numbers,
and it is then devoured to a skeleton within an hour, even should it be one of the
larger animals, a stag, for instance, or a horse. Their voracity is almost insatiable,
and they are extremely ungenerous, suffering no other animal to approach
them while feeding. After eating they become so sluggish and indolent, as to
remain in the same place until urged by hunger to go in quest of another repast.
At such times, they perch on decayed trees, with their heads so much retracted,
as to be with difficulty observed through the long, loose, lanceolate feathers of the
collar. The wings, at the same time, hang down over the feet. This position
they invariably preserve in dewy mornings, or after rains. Except after eating,
or while guarding their nest, they are so excessively wary, that the hunter can
scarcely ever approach sufficiently uear even for buck-shot to take effect on them,
the fulness of the plumage affording them a double chance of escaping uninjured.
Their flight is slow, steady, and particularly graceful, gliding along with scarcely
any apparent motion of the wings, Ihe tips of which are curved upwards in flying.
They are seen in greatest numbers, and soar highest, before hurricanes or
thunder-storms. Their quills are used by the hunters as tubes for tobacco-pipes.”
DESCRIPTION
Of male and female specimens shot by Mr. Douglas, in lat. 45^° N., and now in the Museum of the Zoological Society.
The sexes are alike in plumage, but the female is a size larger.
Colour o f the plumage in general brownish-black. On the back and lesser wing-coverts
the feathers have narrow margins o f pale umber-brown. A white band crosses the wing on
* Mr. Audubon, in a highly interesting paper published in the Edin. Ph. Journal, states, that the Vultures are
entirely guided by sight, and not by smell, in the discovery of their food.
VULTURID.®. 3
the tips of the greater coverts. The tail is black to the extremity. The feathers clothing the
lower part of the peck, and those on the breast, have each a narrow, pale, shining streak
along its shaft, which contributes to give them a more pointed appearance. There is a white
longitudinal band on the flank, and a broader one, opposite to it, on the lining of the wing,
that includes the whole of the greater inner coverts. Thighs black. Bill glossy yellow.
“ Irides pale red, and the pupils light green.” A triangular space, between the nostrils and
crown of the head, is rather thinly clothed with short black hairy feathers; and there are
also a few feathers on the tores, but the rest of the head and neck is covered with smooth
naked skin, which, on the former, “ has a deep orange colour, and on the latter a brownishyellow,
with bluish changeable tints.” Begs bluish-black.
F o r m , &c.—The head is small, scarcely exceeding the neck in diameter. The bill is three
inches and a half long; the ridge of the upper mandibfe is straight, and is produced to its
hooked tip, nearly in the same line with the flatfish crown of the head ; its cutting margin is undulated,
there being an obtuse lobe immediately anterior to the cere ; and another smaller one,
but equally well marked, on the horny part of the mandible. The line' ofuhion of the point
of the bill with the cere, is deeply indented, the former sending an angular process backwards
towards each nostril. The angle of the mouth does hot extend quite so far hack as the orbit.
The nostrils, of an oblong-oval form, are longitudinal, with a slight degree of obliquity,, and
are situated rather nearer the ridge of the mandible than to its cutting margin. The auditory
opening is semi-oval and naked. The feathers on the base of the neck have lengthened lanceolate
tips, and those immediately adjoining the naked skin, stand out,, so1 as to form a kind of
ruff, from which there is a gradual transition to the smooth-lying plumage of the breast. All
these feathers have detached flexible barbs, their tips alone being more compact. The naked
skin extends down to the crop on the forepart of the neck, but it is not so conspicuous below
as in the Black Vulture (Cathartes atratus), being nearly concealed by the ruff just mentioned.
The folded wings reach a little beyond the tail; the third quill feather is the longest. The tail
is even, and consists of fourteen feathers, which are rounded at the ends. The tarsi are naked,
and are protected anteriorly by large oblong transverse scales, or scutelli. The toes are long and
slender, and are scutellated above, nearly their whole length. The middle one is the longest,
and it is connected to the lateral ones at the base by webs. The hind toe is short. The nails
are short, and slightly curved.
Length. • •
Circumference of the body .
Length of the beak
Circumference of the head .
Length of the neck
Dimensions,
Copied from Mr. Douglas.
. Inc5h6es . Circumference of t,h e nec,k . •' . . mcn9es.
. 40 Length of the body • • • . 2 4
3§ Extent between the tips of the wings, (9 ft. 8 in.) 116
. 9 Length of the tarsus . . . . 4 |
. 11 „ . pif the tail . . . . . 1 5
Dimensions
Of the larger specimen when mounted.
Length from the tip of the bill to the end of the tail 48 Length of the bill, following its! curve from tip to
■ „ of the tail . • • • ™ nostrils , . . . .
,, of the bill from the angle of the mouth . 3
B 2