Part 16

Obs. The identification of the bird here described, may be considered as one of the most important services to be performed in North American Ornithology. Its occurrence has never been noticed since the time of the accurate and veracious naturalist who first described it, and his careful description above quoted seems to clearly indicate it to be a species entirely unknown. The white tail especially is characteristic, and establishes a clear distinction from any other known species. It is related evidently to the King Vulture, (S. papa,) but that species has a black tail, and in case of mistake or misprint in Bartram’s description, it may be presumed at any rate to relate to an occurrence of that species within the United States. There is no more inviting nor more singular problem in North American Ornithology.

C. SPECIES, THE OCCURRENCE OF WHICH IN THE UNITED STATES IS DOUBTFUL.

1. Sarcoramphus gryphus. (Linn.) The Condor.

Bonap. Am. Orn. IV. pl. 22. Temm. pl. col. 133, 408, 464. Zool. Voy. Bonité, Birds, pl. 2, (Paris, 1841.)

Size, large. Head, neck, and large space on the breast, bare. Plumage, black, with a white space on the wing; neck, with a collar or ruff of white downy feathers; plumage of the back, the quills and tail frequently with a gray tinge. Head above with a large caruncle or comb, and others on the sides of the head and neck.

Total length of skin, about 4 feet, wing about 2 feet 6 inches, tail about 15 inches.

Hab. South America.

Obs. The famous Condor of the Andes, though it has been admitted as a North American bird into the works of Bonaparte and Nuttall, cannot at present, in our opinion, be so regarded. The description in the History of the Expedition of Lewis and Clarke, which was supposed to relate to this bird, and has been the sole authority for its introduction by the authors just mentioned, very probably applies to the Californian Vulture. No other travellers have seen the Condor, either at the localities mentioned by Lewis and Clarke, or elsewhere in North America. It is common in the western parts of South America. The most complete descriptions with which we are acquainted are by Humboldt, in Zoological Observations, I. p. 26, (Recuil d’Observationes de Zoologie et d’Anatomie comparée Paris, 1811, quarto,) and by Darwin in Zoology of the Voyage of the Beagle, Birds, p. 3, (London, 1841,) and by the same author in Voyage of a Naturalist, I. p. 234, 238, (American edition, New York, 1846, duodecimo.)

2. Sarcoramphus papa. (Linn.) The King Vulture.

Spix. Av. Bras. pl. 1. Buff. Pl. Enl. 428. Vieill. Gal. pl. 3.

Plumage on the neck, dusky cinereous; wings and tail, glossy black; all other parts, fine pale fulvous. Head and upper part of neck naked, the former with an elevated and conspicuous caruncle arising from the cere.

Total length of skin about 28 inches, wing 18, tail about 9 inches.

Hab. South and Central America. Mexico.

Obs. The King Vulture is the most handsome bird of its family. Though admitted by Nuttall as a bird of the United States (Manuel, I. p. 40, Boston, 1840,) no instance is recorded, or has otherwise come to our knowledge, of its having been observed north of Mexico. It is not improbable, however, that it may yet be found in Texas or in California, or possibly in Florida. It is described by Hernandez as an inhabitant of Mexico, in his “New History of the Plants, Animals, and Minerals of Mexico,” p. 319, (Nova, plantarum, animalium et mineralium Mexicanorum, Historia, Rome, 1651, folio,) and has found a place in the works of all authors on general Ornithology, and been noticed by many travellers.

The above comprise all the Vultures which have been hitherto known or supposed to inhabit America, north of Mexico. There are three other species which appear to be peculiar to South America and the islands of West Indies, (particularly the more southern of them,) all of which more or less intimately resemble our species of the North. They are Cathartes jota (Molina), described in Geog. Nat. and Civil Hist. of Chili, American edition, I. p. 185, (Middletown Conn. 1808, octavo,) Cathartes Brasiliensis, Bonaparte Consp. Av. p. 9, and Cathartes urbicola, Des Murs Rev. and Mag. de Zool. April, 1853. The latter is a large and very remarkable species which has only recently been ascertained to frequent the cities of several of the West Indies.

Nearly all of the American Vultures are remarkable for a disposition manifested, in a greater or less degree, to resort to cities, or even more isolated abodes of men, for the purpose of procuring food. In the southern cities of the United States, the Black Vulture congregates in large numbers; its relative of South America (Cathartes Brasiliensis) possesses the same habit, and is exceedingly abundant in the cities of the countries that it inhabits. Even the gigantic Condor does not hesitate to make its appearance in the vicinity of villages or dwellings in the western countries of South America for the same purpose. In this respect these birds resemble the most common European bird of their family which inhabits southern Europe, and also Asia and northern Africa; the Neophron percnopterus or Egyptian Vulture. The latter is, however, very different in colour, being nearly white when adult, and clean, which is an important consideration in a bird of habitually filthy habits.

Travellers have represented the male of the Condor as larger and as having more handsome plumage than the female. We hope to be excused for here asking attention to this point, should opportunity occur to any of our readers. It is the only known or supposed instance in the order of Rapacious Birds, of the male being the larger, and, if true, of course establishes an exception hitherto not recognized by naturalists. In these birds, and especially in the Falcons and Eagles, the difference in the size of the sexes of the same species is often very remarkable, but the larger is invariably the female.

Further experiments and observations by persons having suitable opportunities and facilities are very desirable for the purpose of ascertaining the degree of development of the senses of sight and smell in the Vultures. Eminent authors have maintained quite opposite views on this subject, some attributing the fact that they perceive objects suitable for their food from a distance, to the acuteness of their sight and others to their power of smelling. This is yet an open question, though there is a very considerable amount of evidence on each side, and may be regarded as presenting an interesting field for further investigation.

NYCTALE KIRTLANDII.—(Hoy.) Kirtland’s Owl. PLATE XI.—Adult Male.

Having in the eastern portion of the United States no traditions nor architectural remains which date beyond the first settlement of the white man, our people are but little prone to many of the superstitions which have prevailed in the old world. In the absence of the ruined monastery or crumbling abbey, of the ivy-covered baronial castle and haunted tower, local and legendary superstitions especially, have found no considerable nor permanent place in the popular mind.

Some reliance in the influence of the moon, and a small degree of attention to the aspect of the sign of the zodiac according to the time-honored frontispiece in the almanac, both materially lacking in the important requisite of full and trusting faith, are very nearly the only mysteries which can be regarded as having acquired a practical adoption in any appreciable degree. Others, as the witchcraft of former and the Spiritualism of latter times, as in other countries, have temporarily assumed aspects of more or less importance, but have either disappeared, or, awaiting the certain test of Christian enlightenment and unprejudiced examination, have taken the form of religious faith, and are held in conscientious veneration. An occasional exception may be found, too, in the local transplanting of an European, or perhaps of an African tradition, but many superstitions of the old world are almost absolutely unknown; the evil Banshee, the gentler Brownie, Puck and Oberon, Mab and Titania have no local habitation, though well beloved as beautiful accessories in the immortal productions of the poets, or as told by an humble mother to her children in tales of remembrance of her native land.

In the higher order of legends—in those which record facts or dim histories of exceeding antiquity, or in which are embalmed the deeds of the remote hero, though even more faded than his features on the mouldering wall or the faded marble—young America pleads her youth. But not without product—and as that which has been shall be again, as legends and traditions like to those of other nations will very probably be amongst the results of American mind, there is one American name, perhaps as yet one only, which may become mythical or even now is. When thousands of years shall have rolled away, and the annals of the present age shall be known only to the scholar and the antiquary of those times in precious scraps and fragments, the adjusting of which shall require the skilfulness of learning, some future Lepsius or Layard may recognise in a wise Minos or in a just Nemesis, the American Washington.

The Republic of the United States has acquired its position as a nation, and in fact has existed only in an age of enlightenment, and the universal attention to education and the diffusion of general knowledge which happily has ever prevailed in a degree not exceeded in any country, has necessarily prevented in a great measure the forming of orally transmitted histories or of legendary fables, and there being no ruins of buildings nor other evidences of the decay of past ages, our people do not associate with ideas of desolation, animals which might have found suitable habitations in such localities, nor have they attributed traditional associations or characters.

We have no birds of ill omen, and even the long-defamed Owl has escaped his usual reputation; not that he is regarded with favor, rather the reverse; but for other reason than attributed connexion with supernatural agents; nor is his appearance in the neighborhood of the farm-house or the settler’s cabin regarded as at all ominous, except of immediate danger to whatever of the domestic poultry may have attracted his attention, or in any degree foreboding, unless of his own abrupt demise in case he happens to be observed by the proprietor, having at hand his trusty rifle or fowling-piece. The owl takes the greater risk in such an adventure.

On account, in some measure, of their peculiar forms, particularly their large heads and staring eyes, their nocturnal habits, and their habitually resorting in the day-time to secluded haunts in the forest or other little-frequented localities, no animals have been more invariably regarded as of evil portent than owls. And in this character they have found a place in the literature, and especially the poetry, of nearly all nations ancient and modern. The Latin writers seldom fail to mention the appearance of the owl among the omens and prodigies which they frequently enumerate as having preceded disasters to the state or to distinguished personages. Pliny in his Natural History, gravely devotes a chapter to Inauspicious Birds, and gives the owl a post of distinction in this manner: “The owl, a dismal bird, and very much dreaded in public auguries, inhabits deserts which are not only desolate, but dreary and inaccessible: it is a monster of night, nor does it possess any voice but a groan. Thus, when it is seen in towns or in daylight, it is an omen to be dreaded.” Book x., chapter 12. The poets give him the same reputation, but perhaps only in the legitimate exercise of their art. The poet is privileged in the entire domain of nature, and Virgil and Shakspeare have forever commemorated, though somewhat infamously, the Owl. The former alludes to it as one of numerous precursors of the death of Dido:

“Solaque culminibus ferali carmine bubo Sæpe queri, et longas in fletum ducere voces.”

“Whilst lonely on the roof, night’s bird prolongs The notes of woe, and shrieks funereal songs.”

Shakspeare uses the Owl in the same capacity of direful portent. Thus Casca, in allusion to omens preceding the death of Cæsar: