CATHARTID^ — THE AMERICAN VULTURES. 



6'\ 



43 



as well as in the .Santa Lucia range, and are found there throughout the 

 year, but in greater numbers from July to iSIovember. 



An egg of this species, in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution 

 (9,983), from San Eafael, California, obtained by Dr. C. A. Caniield, measures 

 4.40 inches in length by 2.50 in breadth. It is of an elongate-oval shape, but 

 is decidedly more pointed at the smaller than at the larger end. In color it 

 is of a uniform pale greenish-blue, almost an ashy greenish-white, and with- 

 out spots. 



Genus RHINOGRYPHUS, Ridgway. 



Catluirtes, Arcx. (iu part). (Type, Vultur aura, L.) 



Gen. Char. Size medium (about equal to Neophron), the wings and tail well devel- 

 oped, the remiges very long and large. Head and upper portion of the neck naked ; the 

 skin smooth, or merely wrinkled ; a semicircular patch of antrorse bristles before the eye. 

 Nostril very large, with both ends broadly rounded, occupying the whole of the nasal 

 orifice. Cere contracted anteriorly, ami as deep as broad ; lower mandible not so deep as 

 the upper. Plumage beginning gradually on the neck, with broad, rounded, normal feath- 

 ers. Ends of primaries reaching beyond the end of the tail; third or fourth quill longest; 

 outer five with inner webs appreciably sinuated. Tail much rounded; middle toe slightly 

 longer than the tarsus. Sexes alike. 



A. aitra. l^ oat size. 



R. burTovianits. (>^,) 



R. aura, ('j-.j 



Neophron pemiapterus. (}i.) Rhimgryplms aura ('4.) 



The species of this genus are only two in number, one of them (aura) ex- 



