The Black Vulture and the Caracara as Vegetarians
The Black Vulture and the Caracara as Vegetarians.--McIlhennys ’ note (Auk, 62, 1945: 136-137) on Black Vultures (Coragy@ atrutus) eating chopped sweet potatoes prompts me to report my observations on this bird in Surinam, Dutch Guiana. On the grounds of the Agricultural Experiment Station at Paramaribo I regularly observe Black Vultures feeding on the fruits of the African oil palm (EZueis gti?zeeti). The birds either sit in the trees and gnaw small bits from the fruits which they swallow, or they sit on the ground under the trees and feed on the fruits which haxe fallen down. Also the Black Vultures regularly feed on the flesh of coconuts. The most striking example of this I witnessed in July and September, 1946, in Coronie. This is a coconut growing district where in a factory at the Leasowes plantation oil is pressed mechanically from the coconut flesh. The nuts are opened by laborers, after which the flesh is removed and laid to dry either in the sun.on stone floors or in rather primitive ovens fed by the bark of the nuts. After work ceases in the evening, the coconut flesh is removed from the stone floors and the workmen go home. At that time about 75 or more Black Vultures which have assembled in the meantime in the neighboring cocopalms glide down and start searching for the remnants of coconut flesh. According to the manager of the plantation this is a daily spectacle which he has witnessed for years.
At the same place two Caracaras (Polyborus cherimzy) searched for and fed on the coconut flesh on one of the stone floors.-FR. HAVERSCHMIDT, Paramaribo, Surinam, Dutch Guiana, January. 27, 1947.
