OWLS AND DIURNAL BIRDS OF PREY. 337 
guide posts in channels, &c. It often soars at a considerable 
height, and may then be recognized by its long-pointed wings 
and quick circling movements. It feeds wholly on fish, which 
it catches in its talons, dropping on its quarry often from a 
considerable height. 
Family VuLTurRID Az. 
Vultures. 
The true Vultures are confined to the warmer regions of the 
old world, but are unknewn in the Malay Archipelago, Mada- 
gascar, and Australia. They are practically unrepresented 
in Ceylon, as only a chance straggler of a single species of 
Scavenger Vulture has been recorded. This gap in our 
Avifauna is curious, as one would have imagined that ‘there 
was abundant opportunity for such birds—which are common 
in the Indian peninsula—to find a living in the Island. They 
feed on dead animals, or even excrement, and the absence of 
feathers from the head and neck, which is the distinguishing 
feature of the family, is a modification highly necessary for 
pirds of such unclean habits. In other respects they closely 
- resemble Eagles and Hawks. 
The only species recorded from Ceylon is the smallest of the 
family and. belongs to the genus Neophron. The bill is long 
and slender, straight at the base, with a sharply-hooked tip ; 
the cere is very long. The head and upper fore-neck are 
naked, and below the naked portion is a ruff of hackles. The 
erop also is naked. The wings are long and pointed ; the 
tail wedge-shaped ; the tarsus is fairly Jong and _ partly 
feathered. 
NEOPHRON GINGINIANUS (Blanford, Vol. III., p. 326 ; 
Legge, p. 2). 
The Smaller White Scavenger Vulture. 
Description —Plumage in general whitish ; the neck hackles 
often with a rusty stain ; primaries mainly black, ashy-white 
on the outer web near the base ; secondaries dark brown with 
some ashy-white on the outer web ; tertiaries pale brown. 
Young birds are blackish-brown, with fulvous tips to the 
feathers, and gradually change to the adult plumage. 
