AVES. 555 



long, with third and fom-th quills subeqnal, longest of all. Tail 

 moderate, subeven or rounded. Tarsi short, reticulate with small 

 scales. Head and neck naked. 



All the species of vultures with perforate nostrils are from the new world. 

 To these belongs Cathartes fcetens Illig., Buff. PI. enl. 187 {Cath. aura 

 Spix). It is this very common species of which TsCHUDi relates that 

 black vultures in incredible numbers sit on the walls of the streets and on 

 the roofs of the houses in Peru, in midday heat, and sleep with their head 

 under their wings. — Vidtur aura L., Vieill. Gal. PL 4, WiLS. Avi. Orn. 

 PL 75, fig. I ; both in North and South America; the Prince Maximilian 

 zu WiED, however, distinguishes specifically Vultiir septentrionalis from 

 Yultur aura. 



A couple of species have large fleshy lobes at the base of the bill (the 

 sub-genus Sarcorhamphus Dumer.). To it belongs a bird very common in 

 the plains of the whole of South America, Cathartes papa, Valtur papia L., 

 Buff. PI. oil. 428, Less. Ois. PL 5, fig. i, Did. univ. d'Hist. nai. PL 13, 

 GUERiN Iconogr., Ois., PL i, fig. 3; the king of the kites. Another species, 

 on the contrary, inhabits the lofty mountain-range of the Andes, and has 

 in its manners a striliing resemblance to the Liimmergeier. It is the 

 Condm; a bird of 14 feet in the flight: Cathartes gryphus, Vidtur gryphus 

 L., Humboldt Observ. de Zool. PL 8, Temm. PI. col. 133, 408 (and 494, 

 head of a male bird, natural size). Less. Ornith. PL 7, Guer. Icon., Ois. 

 PL I, fig. -2, Diet. univ. d'Hist. nat., Ois. PL i, fig. i. On the anatomy 

 see Harlan Transact, of the American Philos. Soc. Vol. iii. p. 2 (new 

 series), Philadelphia, 1830, p. 466. 



