268 JOURNAL, BOMMAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXVI. 



Characteristics. 



Measurements. 



A distinct ruff of soft white feathers. Back and 

 upper parts varying from light to dark brown, all 

 feathers more or less edged lighter. The under- 

 parts pale brown, almost whitish, with broad pale 

 shaft stripes. In the young, head and neck are more 

 thickly clad, and the young resembles the Himalayan 

 Griftbn, but is, of course, considerably smaller. 



Size large. Nostril a vertical narrow slit ; tail of 

 14 feathers ; wing under 25" ; crown of head with 

 scattered hairs. 



Length about 38"; tail 11"; wing 23"; tarsus 

 3-75"; mid-toe without claw 3-9" ; bill from gape 2'8". 

 (Blanford.) 



Bill and cere pale greenish, yellow horny on cul- 



men ; irides brown; bare skin of head and face 



dusky, ashy leaden ; legs and feet the same ; claws 



creamy horny. (Blanford.) 



Blanford gives the range of this bpeuies as " throughout the greater 



part of the Peninsula of India, south of the Indo-Gangetic plain not in 



Sind nor in Ceylon." 



The Long-billed Vulture is said to breed from December to February in 

 colonies on precipitous clifls, laying a single egg, greenish white generally 

 unspotted, sometimes spotted or blotched with reddish brown, measuring 

 about 3-61 by 272. (Blanford.) 



Family VULTURID^. 



No. 1195. 



Type B. 



Genus Gyps. 

 Gyps tenuirostris, The Himalayan Long-billed Vulture. 



Characteristics 

 Colouration. 



Measurements. 



Distribution. 



Very similar to the last species except that in 

 this species the head is bare absolutely. The 

 general colouration of the plumage being darker, 

 the legs and feet somewhat longer, the bill more 

 slender, the nostril apparently less elongate and 

 broader, and the colours of the soft parts different. 

 (Blanford.) 



Length 38^"; tail 10^"; wing 24"; tarsus 4"; 

 middle toe without claw 4-3" ; bill from gape 2'85". 



Bill brownish dusky horny, the culmen yellowish 

 horny ; cere horny black ; irides deep brown ; claws 

 dusky or horny black. (Hume.) 



*' Throughout the lower Himalayas and near their 

 base as far west as Kashmir," 



Said to breed on trees in January and February and lays a single egg 

 nearly pure white and measuring 3'5 by 2*73. 



Family VULTURIDiE. 



Type B. 



Genus Pseudoyyps. 



No. 1196. Fseudogyps benyaknsis, The Indian "White-backed Vulture, 



Characteristics, Nostril a narrow vertical slit ; tail of 12 feathers. 



Colouration, The whole head and about two-thirds of theupper 



portion of the neck dusky plumbeous with incon- 

 spicuous brownish hairs sparsely scattered about^ 



