Mr. R. B. Sharpe's Cataloyue 0/ Accipitrcs. 93 



race to moult from this plumage into the adult state whilst 

 living in the Gardens of the Zoological Society ; but Professor 

 James Orton, in an interesting paper published in the ' Annals 

 and Magazine of Natural History ' for 1871, viii. p. 185, gives 

 reasons for believing that there exists in the neighbourhood 

 of Quito a Condor which permanently wears a plumage like 

 that of the young of the two species of Condor already known ; 

 and, indeed, Professor Orton does not admit the fact of the 

 ordinary northern Condor being brown when young, and sup- 

 poses, though evidently incorrectly, that all the brown Con- 

 dors belong to this alleged third species, which Mr. Sharpe 

 introduces into his Catalogue under the name of " Sarco- 

 rhamphus cequatorialis." I confess to having great doubts as 

 to whether this third species will prove a reality, and I agree 

 with Professor Orton in the remark which he makes in the 

 concluding paragi'aph of his notice of this subject, that '' fur- 

 ther proof is wanted " of the existence of a brown Condor 

 that is not the young of either of the two species akeady 

 known, 



Mr. Sharpe, in his Addenda, adopts Mr. Ridgway's generic 

 name of Rhinogryphus for the "Turkey-Buzzard" Vulture 

 and its nearest allies — and describes a new yellow-headed 

 species, under the specific name of " pernigra," as distinct 

 from the orange-headed " urubitinga;" but whether they are 

 really distinct, I at present somewhat doubt, especially as Mr. 

 Sharpe states that both these supposed species occur in Peru, 

 and also in Guiana. Mr. Sharpe partly relies, as a distinc- 

 tion, on the bird to which he assigns the name of " pernigra " 

 having the upper surface of the shafts of the primaries brown, 

 whilst in urubitinga they are white ; but this may be a variable 

 character in the yellow-headed Vultures, as it certainly is in 

 the red-headed Auras. 



The Norwich Museum possesses specimens of the red- 

 headed Aura Vulture, in which the quills are brown, from 

 California, Mexico, Ecuador, Chili, and Cuba, and specimens 

 in Avhich they are white or yellowish white from California, 

 Northern Mexico, and Chili, whilst in a specimen from Ja- 

 maica, killed whilst moulting, the shafts of the old feathers 

 are white, and those of the new are brown. 



