94 Mr. J. H. Gurney's Notes on 



I am disposed to agree with Mr. Sharpe in the view which 

 he takes of Rhinogi'yphus burrovianus being only founded on 

 undersized specimens of R. aura ; such a specimen^ obtained 

 in Florida, is preserved in the Norwich Museum, and has the 

 outer side of the shafts of the primaries white. 



The colour of the head in the Vultures of this genus (as 

 observed in life) being so important a character, it may be 

 worth while to quote a translation of the description of this 

 colouring given by the late Prince Maximilian of Wied, as 

 observed by him in the Aura Vultures with "yellowish 

 white " shafts to the primaries which he met with in Brazil, 

 and which I take to be the race to which Mr. Sharpe re- 

 stricts the specific name of urubitinga, viz. : — 



Adult. Iris beautifully red, between carmine and vermilion ; 

 bill and cere reddish white ; crown and lower side of head 

 pale violet or sky-blue ; eyelids, side of head, neck, and tlu'oat 

 beautiful grey-orange colour. 



Immature. Iris blackish grey ; head in very young birds 

 reddish grey, whitish on the crown and over the eye ; neck 

 bluish, subsequently to which the head becomes reddish 

 violet, with a whitish blue patch on the occipital region. 



Mr. Sharpe does not follow Mr. Ridgway^s example in se- 

 parating the great Vulture of California from the genus 

 Rhinogryphus, in which he includes this species, and, as it 

 seems to me, with good reason ; but in his article respecting 

 it he omits to mention that in the immature bird the bare 

 skin of the head and neck is of a blackish lead-colour, which 

 is very apparent where not covered by the sparse brown 

 down with which the head is partially clothed (especially to- 

 wards the occiput) in young specimens. My friend, Mr. 

 Alexander S. Taylor (of California) , however, has stated his 

 belief that this dark coloration of the head and neck is always 

 found in the adult female bird as well as in immature speci- 

 mens. A similar opinion is expressed in the following remark 

 by Dr. J. G. Cooper, at p. 500 of the first volume on orni- 

 thology, published in the ' Reports of the State Geological 

 Survey of California ' : — " The female retains a darker hue of 

 head and neck through life [than the male], and also, as ob- 



