250 African Zoology. 
feathers white towards base, ashy towards points, and crossed 
by two black bands, the first narrow, irregular, and separating 
the white and grey colours; the last broad, and near to the 
extremity ; tips of all the feathers white. Legs and toes yel- 
lowish brown; claws black. Length from bill to point of 
centre tail-feathers three feet five inches. 
Inhabits Africa,—common in South Africa. 
Falco serpentarius, Lin. Vultur serpentarius, Lath. pl. 2. 
Ophiotheres cristatus, Vieill. Gal. pl. 260. Le Mangeur de 
Serpents, Levail. pl. 25. Secretary Bird of the Cape Colonists. 
Fam. VULTURIDA. 
Head, and more or less of neck, divested of feathers; the 
former covered with down, hair, or fleshy membranes ; cere 
bald or hairy ; tarsi robust and reticulated ; claws weak ; quills 
longer than the tail, the first quill the shortest ; the fourth the 
longest. 
Genus Vouttur. Illiger. 
Bill thick and rather short, deeper than broad, its base covered 
by a cere; upper mandible straight, bent towards the point ; un- 
der mandible straight, rounded, and inclined at the point; head 
naked or covered with short down ; nostrils naked, lateral, open- 
ing diagonally towards the edge of the cere; legs strong, fur- 
nished with slightly-bent claws; the middle toe longest, and 
united with the exterior one at the base; the third and fourth 
quill feathers longest. 
Vultur arrianus, Picot La Peyr. Colour brown, inclining 
to black and sometimes to fulvous; bill brown-black ; cere 
violet ; eyes dark brown ; head and nape bare ; skin bluish ; the 
rest of neck covered with a fulvous down ; lower part of neck 
with a colleret of long narrow delicate feathers ; tarsi partly 
feathered ; the bare portion, and the toes, greyish ; claws black. 
Length three feet six inches. 
Young.—The entire of the neck covered with down, and all 
the feathers of the upper parts terminated by a colour of a 
lighter tint. 
Inhabits Egypt, India, and Europe. 
Le Vautour noir d’ Egypt, Savig. Syst. des Ois. d’ Egypte, 
p. 14. L’Arrian, Gerard. Tab, elem. d’ Orn. vol. i. p. 11. 
Cinereous, Ash-coloured, and Bengal Vulture, Latham, Ind. 
Orn. 
Vultur fulvus, Gmel. (Fulvous Vulture.) Head and nape 
covered with dirty short whitish hairs, or bristles; lower 
part he cervix bare, and of a bluish colour; lower part of 
