BIRDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA 31 



Rhinogryphus Ridgway, in Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway, Hist. North Amer. 



Birds, iii, Jan. 1874, 337 (in key), 343; Ann. Lye. Nat. Hist. New York, x, 



Feb. 1874, 381. (Type, by original designation, Vidiur aura Linnaeus.) 

 Oenops Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., i, June 1, 1874, 20, 25. (Type, as design- 



nated by Sliarpe, ibid., 455, Vultur aura Linnaeus.) 

 Catharista '* Vieillot, Analyse, 181G, 21. (Type, "Vautour urubuaura, Sonnini, 



^dit. de Buff on." Type designated by Gray, 1855, Vultur aura Linnaeus.) 

 Catharlista (emendation) d'Oubigny, Voy. Am6r. Mf^rid., iv, 1835, Ois., 31, 38. 

 Catharthes (emendation) d'Orbigny, Voy. Amer. Mi^rid., iv, 1835, Ois., pi. 1. — 



Lesson, Rev. Zool., ii, 1839, 132. 

 Catharistes (emendation) Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., i, 1874, 23. 



Medium-sized to rather small lightly built Cathartes (wing about 

 450-585 mm.) nostril very large and broad, occupying entire nasal 

 fossa, both ends rounded ; wing relatively long, with longest primaries 

 extending decidedly beyond longest secondaries; tail more than half 

 as long as wing, strongly rounded; middle toe without claw, longer 

 than tarsus; sacral vertebrae 13; cervical ribs 2 pairs; sacral ribs 

 2 pah's; the adults with bill white, naked skin of head and upper neck 

 red, orange, or yellow and feet whitish (in Hfe). 



Bill relatively small, the distance from base of culmen to tip of 

 maxilla equal to about half the distance from same point to middle of 

 eye, but much greater than distance from base of culmen to posterior 

 end of nostril ; commissm-e long, the rictus situated nearly as far back 

 as anterior angle of eye; cere contracted and more or less depressed 

 anteriorly, more or less elevated and arched posteriorly, its length on 

 top much greater than distance from posterior angle of eye to posterior 

 line of occiput, and about three times the depth of maxilla at anterior 

 end of nostril, the depth of mandible at same point very much less 

 than that of maxilla, its anterior outline inclining downward and 

 backward from base of culmen sometimes nearly in a straight line, 

 sometimes as a curved line (concave anteriorly) ; nostril very large 

 and broad, occupying entire nasal fossa, both ends broadly rounded, 

 and almost completely pervious, its greatest width equal to nearly 

 if not quite half its length. Head (except, sometimes, median lower 

 portion of occiput, sometimes upper neck, at least in front) bare, 

 the skin mostly smooth or merely wrinkled but, in fully adult 

 birds with wartUke excrescences on lores or forehead (or on both) 

 and more or less interspersed with short, hairlike bristles, especially 

 in front of eye, where the antrorse bristles usually form a semicircular 

 patch. Wing large and broad, thi-ough great development of remiges, 

 the longest primaries extending considerably beyond tips of longest 

 secondaries, the third or fourth (from outside) longest, the outer five 

 with inner webs sinuated. Tail more than half as long as wing, 

 strongly rounded, the rectrices (12) broad, with rounded tips. Tarsus 



"Ka&apifw, purifico (Vieillot). 



