IOI6 VULTURE 



the Ancient Continent, equal in rank to tlie Falconidse, while fully 

 admitting the claim made on behalf of the New-World forms for 

 the same standing. 



I, The American Vultures includefive genera: — (1) Sarcorhamphus, 

 the gigantic Condor (p. 101), the male distinguished by a large 

 fleshy comb and wattles ; (2) Gypagus, the King -Vulture, with its 

 gaudily-coloured head and nasal caruncle ; (3) Catharista, generally 

 known as the Black Vulture or " Carrion CroAv," C. atrafa, of the 

 warmer parts of America ; (4) Cathartes, containing the so-called 

 John Crow (p. 470), or Turkey -Buzzard of English-speaking 

 Americans, with its allies ; ^ and (5) Pscudogryphus, the great Cali- 

 fornian Vulture — of very limited range on the western slopes of 

 North America and, through the use of poison, threatened with 

 speedy extinction. Though all these birds are structurally so 

 different from the true Vultures of the Old World, in habits the 

 Vulturidse and Sarcorhamphidx are much alike, and of several of the 

 latter — particularly of the Condor and the Turkey -Buzzard — 

 we possess elaborate accounts by excellent observers, as Darwin, 

 Alexander Wilson and Gosse — Avhose works are readily accessible. 



II. The true Vultures of the Old World, Vulturidse in the 

 restricted sense, are generally divided into five or six genera, of 

 which Neophron (p. 621) has been not tuijustifiably separated as 

 forming a distinct subfamily, Neoplironinx, — its members, of com- 

 paratively small size, differing both in structiu-e and habit consider- 

 ably from the rest. One of them is the so-called Egyptian Vulture 

 or Pharaoh's Hen, N. percnopterus, a bird whose delicacy of build and 

 appearance contrasts forcibly with its choice of the most filthy food. 

 It is a well-known species in some parts of India, ^ and thence west- 

 ward to Africa, where it has an extensive range. It also occurs on 

 the northern shores of the Mediterranean, and on three occasions 

 has strayed to such a distance from its usual haunts as to have 

 twice suffered capture in England, and once even in Norway. Of 

 the genera composing the other subfamily, Vulturinx, space is want- 

 ing to say much. Gyps numbers seven or eight local species and 

 races, on more than one of which the English name Griffon (p. 

 385) has been fastened. The best loiown is G. fulvus, which by 

 some authors is accounted "British," from an example having been 

 taken in Ireland, though in circumstances which suggest its appear- 

 ance so far from its nearest home in Spain to be due to man's 

 intervention. The species, however, has a wider distribution on 

 the European continent (especially towards the north-east) than the 



^ The birds of these two genera are easily to be distinguished on the wing 

 at a considerable distance {cf. Coues, B. North West, pp. 381, 382). 



- In the eastern part of the Indian peninsula it is replaced by a smaller race 

 or (according to sonae authorities) species, N. gingianus, which has a yellow 

 instead of a black bill. 



