VULTURE 



1015 



VULTUEE, the name of birds whose best-known characteristic 

 is that of feeding upon carcases, and, owing to this obscene habit, 

 are regarded with favour" as useful scavengers in many hot countries. 

 The genus Vidtur, as instituted by Linmeus, is now restricted by 

 ornithologists to a single species, V. monachus, of which more 

 presently, the other species included therein by him, or thereto 

 referred by succeeding systematists, being elsewhere relegated ; 

 but the most important taxonomic change that has been introduced 

 is that by Prof. Huxley {Froc. Zool. Soc. 1867, pp. 462-464), who 



KiNCi-VuLTURE {Gypagus pccpa). 



pointed out the complete structural difference l)etween the Viiltiures 

 of the New World and those of the Old,^ regarding the former 

 as constituting a distinct Family, Catluirtidx (more properly 

 named Sarcorhamphidx), while he united the latter with the ordinary 

 diurnal Birds-of-Prey as Gi/paetidiV (Lammergeyer, p. 501, note). 

 This arrangement overlooks the signification of some considerable 

 distinctions, and it would appear more reasonable to recognize the 

 existence of a Family Vidturidai, confined to the true Vultures of 



' This separation had already been made by Brandt {Journ. fur Orn. 1853, 

 p. 181), but he contented himself with dividing the Vultures into two subfamilies, 

 Teninorhines or Sarcorhamphinse and Holorhines or VioUurinsz. 



