77 



April 24, 1832. 



N. A. Vigors, Esq., in the Chair. 



Lieut. Colonel Sykes, having brought before the Committee at 

 previous meetings various Birds of the Raptorial and Insessorial 

 Orders, collected by him during his residence in Dukhun, com- 

 pleted on the present evening the exhibition of his collection of 

 those Orders. He limited his observations on the several species 

 to brief extracts from the copious notes which he had made in 

 India respecting their habits, internal anatomy, and geographical 

 distribution. In bringing them in succession under the notice of 

 the Committee, he observed the order adopted in the following 



Catalogue of Birds of the Raptorial and Insessorial Orders (systema- 

 tically arranged,) observed in the Dukhun by Lieut. Colonel 

 W. H. Sykes, Bombay Army, F.L.S., F.G.S., F.Z.S., M.R.A.S. 



Order I. RAPTORES, III. 



Fam. Vulturidce, Vigors. — Genus Vultur, Auct. Vulture. 



1. Vult. Indicus, Lath. Vautour Indou, Tenim., PI. Col. 26. Mahah 



Dhoh of the Mahrattas. 

 Irides deep brown. Length 42 inches, inclusive of tail of lOj 

 inches. A stone half an inch in diameter was found in the 

 stomach of one bird. The proportional length of the intestine 

 to the body in these birds is 3 to 1, while in the Neophron Per- 

 cnopterus it is 5*20 to 1. They congregate in flocks of twenty 

 or thirty. On a dead camel, or horse, or bullock being thrown 

 out on the plain, numbers of these Vultures are found assembled 

 round it in an incredibly short time, although they may not 

 have been seen in the neighbourhood for weeks before. Col. 

 Sykes's specimens are no doubt referable to M. Temminck's 

 species, although the latter bird is described as having whitish 

 irides. 



2. Vult. Potiticerianus, Lath. Vautour Royal de Pondicherry, Sonn., 



p. 182. pi. 104. 

 The irides are described by Shaw as red, while in two of Colonel 

 Sykes's specimens they were of a deep brown, and in the third 

 of a bright straw-yellow ; but as the last had allowed itself to 

 be captured by hand, had only grass and stalks of herbaceous 

 plants in the stomach, and was evidently ill, the pale colour 

 of the irides may be attributed to disease. Sexes alike in plu- 

 mage. Mostly solitary : Colonel Sykes seldom, if ever, saw 

 more than two together. The remarkable flatness of the crown, 

 and very great width of the cranium, would seem to indicate 



[No. XVI11.] Zool. Soc. Proceedings of the Comm. of SeiENCE. 



