NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 271 



June 29. 



The President, Dr. Ruschenberger, in the chair. 



Sixteen members present. 



The resignation of William M. Wilson as a member was read 

 and accepted. 



On an Extinct Vulturine Bird. Prof. Cope exhibited the fossil- 

 ized skeleton of a vulturine bird of prey from the marls of the 

 Loup Fork Epoch, near Santa Fe, which had been described as 

 Cathartes umbrosus, Cope. The beak had been broken off at the 

 base, and the fractured surface did not display the septum char- 

 acteristic of the true vultures. On removing the matrix from the 

 nostrils Prof. Cope had discovered that the osseous septum is 

 present but short, hence the species must be referred to the vul- 

 turine division of the Falconidae, and not to the Cathartidee, and 

 the species called Vultur umbrosus ; it was about as large as the 

 " king vulture" {Cathartes papa) of Mexico. The true vultures 

 do not exist at present in the western hemisphere, and the present 

 determination adds one more old world type to the extinct fauna 

 of the United States. The genus Vultur is now associated in 

 Africa and India with Rhinoceros, camels, horses, etc. as in the 

 period of the late tertiary in New Mexico. 



Isaac R. Hinckley was elected a member. Prof. Luigi Bombecci 

 Porta, of Bologna, and Prof. Paolo Mantovanni, of Rome, were 

 elected correspondents. 



The committee to which it had been referred recommended the 

 following paper to be published : 



