GYPS. 323 



1195. Gyps tenuirostris. The Himalayan Lonrj-UUed Vulture. 



Vultur tenuiceps, Hodgson in Gray^s Zool. Misc. p. 81 (1844), descr 



nuUa. 

 Gyps tenuirostris, Hodgson MS., Gray, Gen. B. \, p. 6 (1844), det-cr 



nulla ; Htime, S. F. vii, p. 326 (1878) ; id. Cat. no. 4 ter ; Scully, 



S. F. viii, p. 219. 

 Gyps indicus, apud Jerdon, B. I. \, p. 9, partim ; Blyth, Ibis, 1866, 



p. 232 ; Sharpe, Cat. B. M. i, p. 10, pt. ; Blyth 8,- Walden, Birds 



Burm. p. 64 ; Hume <§• Dav. S. F. vi, p. 1 ; Hume, Cat. no. 4 ; 



id. S. F. xi, p. 2 ; Oates, B. B. ii, p. 169 : id. in Hume's N. & E. 



2nd ed. iii, p. 202. 



Sdyun, Beng. ; Gut, Lepcha. 



Fig. 83. — Head of G. tenuirostris, 5. 



Very similar to the last, but distinguished by having no feathers 

 at all on the head and scarcely any down on the neck, by the 

 general coloration of the plumage being darker, the legs and feet 

 somewhat longer, the bill more slender, the nostril apparently less 

 elongate and broader, and the colours of the soft parts different. 



Bill brownish dusky horny, the culmen yellowish horny ; cere 

 horny black ; irides deep brown ; skin of head and neck dark 

 muddy ; tarsi and toes black ; claws dusky or horny black (Hume). 



Length about 38*5 ; tail ID'S ; wing 24 ; tarsus 4 ; middle toe 

 without claw 4-3 ; bill from gape 2*85. 



The Indian Peninsular form, and not the present species, must 

 retain the name indicus, for Sonnerat in his original description 

 of " Le Grand Vautour des Indes " (to which the specific name 

 indicus was appHed by Scopoli) wrote that the head is covered 

 with fine down resembling hair (la tete est couvei'te dhm iMit duvet 

 qui ressemble a du poll). Hume has distinguished the Himalayan 

 Vultm'e, G. tenuirostris, from that of Bengal, Assam, and Burma, 

 on account of the slender bill and head of the former ; but I feel 

 doubtful whether the difference is constant. 



Distribution. Throughout the lower Himalayas and near their 

 base as far west as Kashmir, also in Bengal, Assam, and Burma, 



y2 



