158 [February, 



Two pairs of the species now described were brought to this country by Robt. 

 MacDowell, M. D., SuPireon attached to the colonial government of Sierra Leone, 

 who collected them in Western Africa. 



It bears a greater resemblance to the Sycobius rubricollis, (Swainson,) Vieill. 

 Ois. chant, pi. 43, than to any other species which I have found described; but 

 from this and all others it may readily be distinguished by its under tail coverts 

 being crimson, and also by its broad pectoral band of the same colour. 



The Committee on Mr. Cassin's "Notes on the Vulturidte and 

 Strij^idae in the Collection of the Academy," reported in favor of pub- 

 lication. 



Notes of an Kxaminatioii of the family Vulturidas, in the coUection of the 

 Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 



By John Cassin. 



1. Gyp» fiilvus, (Gm.) 



Under this name, either Ornithologists have confounded several distinct spe- 

 cies, or the species itself assumes an unusual variety of characters. There are 

 now exhibited in the collection of the Academy, sixteen specimens of Vultures, 

 which have been described as at least four species; but as they all bear more or 

 less intimate relationship to the Gyps fulvus, (Gm.) of Europe, their claims as 

 distinct species have been but partially recognized, and a question seems to be, 

 whether the birds so described, which I may observe, are, for the greater part, 

 from widely different localities, really present characters sufficient to entitle 

 them to specilic distinction, or only such as may be attributed to age or season, 

 or to what naturalists have rather vaguely called variety. 



I have long held as a principle, that however small a peculiar character may 

 be, if it is regularly and constantly reproduced in the generation of an animal, 

 or in other words, is uniformly and with certainty transmitted from parent to 

 offspring, that animal is entitled to be regarded as a distinct species, and is differ- 

 ent from any other. 



The transmission of character can be, of course, most satisfactorily ascer- 

 tained in the natural habitation of the species, but if a series sufficiently exten- 

 sive, or any considerable number of specimens, invariably present a peculiar cha- 

 racter, the student in a museum may assume, quite justly, that he has sufficient 

 evidence. 



In the present case the number of specimens is not sufficiently large to warrant 

 a conclusion, but they appear to present uniformly different characters enough to 

 induce the opinion that the following are specifically distinct : Gyps fulvus^ 

 (Gm.;) Gyps Kolhii, (Daud.;) Gyps indicus, (Temm.;) Gyps tejtinrostris, 

 Hodgson. 



2. Gyps indicus, (Temm.) 



This species is in an extraordinary state of confusion. 



Mr. Temminck describes and figures a Vulture in PI. Col. i., liv. 5, pi. 26, 

 supposed by him to be the " Vultur indicus, Lath.," which name and authority 

 he gives at the head of his article, and in the text of same vol., liv. 72, art. 

 V. imperialis, alludes to it as the same as Vultur leuconotus, Gray. 111. Tnd. Zool., 



