CATHARTID^ — THE AMERICAN VULTURES. 335 



Family CATHARTID^. — The American Vultures. 



CatJmrtidoB, Gray, 1842. — Huxley, P. Z. S. 1867, p. 463. CatJiartince, Lafr. 1839, 

 Sarcorhamphidce, Gray, 1848. Gryphma, Reich. 1850. 



The characters of this family have been given in sufficient detail (III, 1), 

 so that a short diagnosis, showing its most readily observable peculiarities, 

 will here be sufficient. 



Char. Whole head, and sometimes the neck, naked ; eyes prominent, and not shaded 

 by a supercihary shield. Cere much elongated, much depressed anteriorly below the very 

 arched culmen ; nostrils longitudinal, horizontal the two confluent or perforate. Middle 

 toe very long, and the hind one much abbreviated. A web between the base of the inner 

 and middle toes. 



The family Vidturidcc} as long recognized, included all the naked-headed, 

 carrion-feeding Raptores of both the Old and the New World. The later 

 researches of science, however, have shown the necessity of separating the 

 Vultures of the latter continent from those of the former, and ranking 

 them as a distinct family, while at the same time the Old World Vultures 

 are found to be merely modified Falconidce. The resemblance between the 

 Cathartidm and the vulturine Falconidce is merely a superficial one of anal- 

 ogy, and not one of affinity. Being the scavengers of the countries they 

 inhabit, the latter thus perform the same office in nature as the former, and for 

 adaptation to a similar mode of life their external characters are modified to 

 correspond. Close, however, as is the external resemblance between the two 

 groups, their osteological structure and internal anatomy is entirely different. 



The Cathartidce differ from the Vulturirice ^ as to their external structure 

 in the following particulars, the osteological structure being entirely different 

 in the two groups, the latter being like the Falconidce in all the characters 

 which separate the latter family from the Cathartidce. 



Cathartidae. Nostrils horizontal, perforate ; a well-developed web between the inner 

 and middle toes, at the base. 



Vulturinae. Nostrils vertical, not perforate ; no trace of web between inner and middle 

 toes. 



In habits, the Cathartidce resemble the vulturine Falconido} of the Old 

 World. " They lack the strength and spirit of typical Raptores, and rarely 

 attack animals capable of offering resistance ; they are voracious and indis- 

 criminate gormandizers of carrion and animal refuse of all sorts, — efficient 

 and almost indispensable scavengers in the warm countries where they 

 abound. They are uncleanly in their mode of feeding ; the nature of their 

 food renders them ill-scented, and when disturbed they eject the fetid contents 



1 Established by Vigors, in 1825. 



2 From the Vulturinm are excluded the genera Gy pectus and Neophron, each of which proba- 

 bly constitutes a subfamily by itself. 



