Bulletin - United States National Museum - si-pddr - Smithsonian ...

BIRDS OF ARGENTINA, PARAGUAY, URUGUAY, AND CHILE 87
The yellow-headed vulture was observed first at Resistencia, Chaco,
on July 8 and 10, 1920. From July 16 to August 1 the species was
recorded at Las Palmas, Chaco, and from August 9 to 19 at the
Eiacho Pilaga, Formosa. In the locality last named it was more
common than the red-headed turkey vulture. At Puerto Pinasco,
Paraguay, the yellow-headed vulture was seen on September 1, and
at the ranch at Kilometer 80, west of that point, it was recorded on
September 8, 9, and 15. One was observed at Lazcano, Uruguay, on
February 8, 1921. The bird was found in the same territory as the
turkey vulture, often in company with that species, of which it is a
counterpart in general appearance, actions, and habits. On cold
winter mornings the birds remained in their roosts until the sun had
warmed the air, and on cold, cloudy days remained wholly inactive;
but in sunny weather I seldom sat down to care for birds that I had
killed without one or more of these vultures swinging overhead to
observe what I was about. Like the turkey vulture, they have a
graceful flight as they quarter tirelessly back and forth in search
for food, or soar in great circles high in air. At times they rest in
dead trees, or may alight in heavy woods if attracted by any movement
or activity that seems to promise food. They appear slight in
body for their wing expanse, and are tough and hard to kill, [n a
wounded individual I noted that the sides of the concave horny
tongue tip were capable of being appressed to a considerable degree.
The species was readily distinguished in life from the turkey vul-
ture by the distinctly yellow head. A male killed near Las Palmar,
Chaco, on July 20 had the head colored in a striking manner. The
bill was cream buff, shading to vinaceous buff on a broad area that
extended onto the forehead, behind the nostrils; side of the head in
general, including eyelids, deep chrome; center of crown dark Ty-
rian blue, bordered on either side by a broad band of stone green;
skin of throat posteriorly deep chrome, becoming paler forward, to
shade into olive buff toward base of bill ; space between mandibular
rami spotted with dark Tyrian blue ; a dull spot of slate blue beneath
the nostrils on either side ; iris carmine ; tarsus cartridge buff, shad-
ing to neutral gray on the toes, where the interscutal spaces have a
scurfy whitish appearance.
A female taken at Kilometer 182, Formosa, on August 13, 1920,
was preserved as a skeleton.
The species does not seem to have been seen previously in Uruguay,
but I include the Lazcano record without hesitation, though no specimen
was taken, as one bird rested on a fence post while I passed at a
distance of 10 meters, so that I had an exceptionally clear view of it.
The red-headed and yellow-headed vultures have been involved in
much confusion, as though easily distinguished in life, in the field,