on Dr. Jcrdon's ' Birds of India.' 233 



naked, with the exception of the few scattered downy tufts 

 before mentioned ; when younger the neck is also conspicuously 

 less clad than in G. fulvus. From G. bengalensis it diflfers 

 altogether ; and it has fourteen rectrices, hke G. fulvus, whereas 

 G. bengalensis has twelve only. 



5. Gyps bengalensis (Gould's B. As. pt. iii.). 



The African species is doubtfully identical (Ibis, 1865, 

 p. 339). It is a little-known fact that the down of this common 

 Irtdian Vulture is manufactured into powder-puffs and articles 

 of costume, being as delicate as any other sort of down so 

 used. I have seen in Calcutta heaps of flattened Vulture-skins 

 of this species divested of their feathers, in the possession of 

 native artisans, who earn their living by manufacturing articles 

 of down ; and little do most persons who use or wear such 

 manufactures suspect the source from which they are derived*. 



6. Neophron ginginianus, (Lath.). N.percJiopte7'us, Sclsit. 

 P.Z.S. 1865, p. 675, ptm. 



In the Gardens of the Zoological Society there were lately 

 four white Rachamahs or Neophrons — one from Africa, and three 

 from India. They were evidently of two distinct specific races. 

 The African (Lev. Ois. d'Afr. 1. 14 ; Vieillot, Gal. des Ois. t. 2 ; 

 Jard. and Selb. 111. Orn. pi. 23; Gould's B. Eur. pi. 3) is 

 larger and more robust, the tarsi and toes conspicuously so. 

 The corneous portion of the bill is black, and the ceral portion 

 is of a reddish-yellow, different from the purer yellow of the 

 cheeks ; the talons also are black, and the cuneate tail passes 

 the tips of the closed wings by an inch or more. In the three 

 Indian birds the corneous portion of the bill is of a pale yellow- 

 ish flesh-colour, as are also the talons ; the ceral portion of the 

 bill is of the same yellow as the cheeks ; the points of the closed 



* Mr. F. Moore, in Horsfield's ' Catalogue of the Museum of the Hon. 

 E. I. Company' (i. p. 2), gives, iu a note, a quotation from Dr. F. Bu- 

 chanan Hamilton's writings respecting "two kinds of Vulture " in Ben- 

 gal ; but he is wrong in supposing that Vultur calvus is one of those in- 

 tended. The species referred to by Dr. B. Hamilton are unquestionably 

 Gyps indicus and G. bengalensis. Instead of " screaming and hissing " 

 I would rather use the words inarticulate cackling and snorting; for these 

 Vultures have no proper voice ; and the habit as described does not ajjply 

 to G. calvus, which is not gregarious, and feeds in a more lordly style, the 

 other birds giving way to it. 



