VULTUEIDjE. 



315 



Length of females about 22 inches ; tail 9 ; wing 20 ; tarsus 2*2 ; 

 bill from gape 1'6. Male slightly smaller. 



Distribution. Almost world-wide; found in suitable localities 

 throughout India, Ceylon, and Burma. 



Habits, Sj-c. Ospreys hve on fish, aud haunt, in India, the coast, 

 backwaters, rivers, and large pieces of water of all kinds. They 

 are generally seen perched on trees, occasionally on a stone, or 

 else circling or flying over water in search of food. They capture 

 fishes near the surface of the water by dropping on them from a 

 height with a great splash, and often carry oft' prey of considerable 

 size, but instances are on record of their being drowned by large 

 fish, so that sometimes at all events they are unable to extricate 

 their claws. Though nests have been seen in the Himalayas by 

 Hume and others, and by Jerdon in an unrecorded part of the 

 country, no eggs have been taken, and most Indian Ospreys are 

 cold-weather visitants and do not breed in the country. They 

 lay generally three eggs, white, much spotted and blotched with 

 dull red, and measuring about 2*4 by 1-77, in a large nest of sticks 

 mixed with various materials and placed on a tree or rock. 



Family VULTURID^. 



Head and neck more or less bare or only clothed with short 

 stubby down ; never any true feathers on crown of head {Sharpe). 



The above appears the only really distinctive character by which 

 Vultures are distinguished from Falcons, Eagles, and Hawks. 

 Vultures have the crop covered with short feathers, and generally 

 a more or less distinct elongate ruff' round the neck at the end of 

 the naked portion. The bill (except in Neophron) is strong, deep, 

 and compressed, with the culmen much curved ; the tip is always 

 hooked, and the cere large and horny. There are 15 cervical 

 vertebrae, or one more than is usual in Fcdconidce. The wings are 

 long; tail-feathers 12 or 14, with strong shafts, that, owing to 

 wear, always project at the ends. The tarsi are partly feathered, 

 the naked portions covered with granular scales, with larger 

 transverse scutes on the distal phalanges of the toes ; the inner 

 and outer toes are subequal, and the middle and outer united by 

 membrane ; claws blunt, not much curved. 



Typical Vultures (the genus Neophron differs in some respects) 

 resemble each other closely in habits. As is well-known, they 

 feed on dead animals, and congregate in an extraordinary manner 

 wherever a carcase is exposed. The way in which they assemble, 

 apparently from all parts of the air, in a place where a few minutes 

 previously not one was in sight, is a wonderful spectacle. When 

 in search of food, Vultures and some other Accipitrine birds soar 

 and wheel slowly in large circles, very often at an elevation far 



