A CALIFORNIA VULTURE

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Aug 6, 1896

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 22, No. 31.

A CALIFORNIA VULTURE.

A VULTURE measuring six feet from the top of its head to the end of its scaly talons, and whose wings are twelve feet across when spread for flying, has recently been caught alive in San Bernardino County, Cal. It was captured by a man who lacks two inches of being as tall as the bird, and it owes its imprisonment to greediness. The despatch says that, having eaten “every particle of flesh from the bones of a dead cow, the vulture was unable to fly, however vigorously he flapped his wings,” and while in this overloaded condition, was lassoed and carried away by Richard Gird.

Apart from its red wattles the bird’s head conveys the idea of a very bald old man of miserly instincts. The back and the upper part of the wings are gray, and the tail, larger wing feathers are a glossy black. The legs and feet are of a reddish hue.

The bird is valuable as a curiosity; for the California vulture is very nearly extinct, so many traps have been set for birds of prey by settlers.—Selected.