18 BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Svenska Vet.-Akad. Forh., 1874, 38. (Restricted to "Vulturfoetidus Illiger" = 



V. uruhu Vieillot.) 

 Catharistes (emendation of Catharista Vieillot) Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., i, 



1874, 23. 

 Cathartes Reichenow, Die Vogel, i, 1913, 3G1, part. 



Medium-sized, heavily built Cathartes (wing about 409-454 mm.) 

 with nostril relatively small and narrow, occupying only posterior 

 half of nasal fossa, narrowly acuminate anteriorly; wing relatively 

 short (less than six times as long as tarsus), the longest primaries 

 scarcely, if at all, extendhig beyond tips of longest secondaries; i 

 less than half as long as wing, truncate; middle toe, without claw, 

 shorter than tarsus; sacral vertebrae, 14; cervical ribs, 3 pairs; sacral 

 ribs, 3 pairs; the adult with bill and naked skin of head and upper neck 

 blackish gray or dusky (that of neck prominently corrugated in 

 adults), and feet also dusky (in hfe). 



Bill relatively long and slender, the distance from base of cidmen 

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

 to anterior angle of eye (as in Cathartes) but less than distance from 

 same point to posterior end of nostril; commissure long, but rictus 

 decidedly anterior to anterior angle of eye; cere more depressed and 

 less contracted anteriorly than in Cathartes, not elevated or arched 

 posteriorly, its length on top much greater than distance from pos- 

 terior angle of eye to posterior hue of occiput (as in Cathartes) but 

 more than four times the depth of maxilla at anterior end of nostril, 

 the depth of mandible at same point being equal to or greater than that 

 of maxilla ; its anterior outline sloping more backward than do^vnward 

 from base of cere to maxillary tomium, which it touches beneath 

 middle portion of nostril; nostril relatively small and narrow, occupy- 

 ing only posterior half (approximately) of nasal fossa, narrowly acum- 

 inate anteriorly, narrowly rounded posteriorly, pervious only for 

 upper-posterior portion, its greatest width equal to not more than one- 

 third its length. Head and upper neck (except hindneck) bare, the 

 skin on sides of neck (from sides of middle foreneck and thence to 

 nape, along edge of feathered portion, transversely corrugated (in 

 adults)), more or less downy in young. Wing large and broad but 

 relatively short through abbreviation of primaries, the tips of which 

 scarcely extend beyond tips of longest secondaries, the fourth or fifth 

 longest (the third, fourth, and fifth subequal), the first (outermost) 

 intermediate between sixth and seventh; the outer five with inner 

 webs sinuated. Tail shorter than wing, truncate or faintly emargi- 

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

 more than one-sixth as long as wing, slightly longer than middle toe 

 without claw, much stouter than in Cathartes but similarly scaled; 

 lateral toes unequal, the outer shghtly longer than the inner. 



