6 VULTURINE. 
very pale fulvous-white, faintly margined with brown ; the mantle 
a somewhat pale hair-brown, every feather narrowly, but con- 
spicuously, centred with fulvous-white; the quill-feathers and 
tail-feathers chocolate-brown, darkest onthe primaries and rec- 
trices ; the lower back, rump, and upper tail-coverts are nearly 
pure white, only a few of the longest being tinged with brown. 
In an intermediate stage the crop-patch is intermediate in 
color between that of the adult and of the young, as is also the 
color and character of the ruff, and imdeed of the whole plumage. 
This bird differs at all ages from bengalensis in having 
fourteen instead of twelve rectrices:—Hume, “ Rough Notes.” 
With the exception of Sind, this Vulture is common through- 
out the Presidency. It breeds on cliffs during December and 
January; the egg is usually very pale greenish-white, but is 
occasionally spotted and blotched with pale-reddish or faint 
purplish-brown. They average 3°61 in length by 2°72 in breadth. 
Genus, Pseudogyps, Sharpe. 
Tarsus shorter than middle toe; tail of twelve feathers. 
Pseudogyps bengalensis, G'm. 
5,—Jerdon’s Birds of India, Vol. I, p. 10; Butler, Guzerat ; 
Stray Feathers, Vol. III, p. 442; Deccan and South Mahratta 
country ; Stray Feathers, Vol. IX, p. 369; Murray’s Vertebrate 
Zoology of Sind, p. 63; Swinhoe and Barnes, Central India ; 
Ibis, 1885, p. 54; Hume’s Scrap Book, p. 26. 
THE WHITE-BACKED VULTURE. 
Gidh, Hin. 
Length, 38 to 37; expanse, 83 to 88; wing, 22 to 24; tail, 
9 to 11; tarsus, 3°5 to 3:9; bill from gape, 2°65 to 29; weight, 
9 to 13 lbs. 
Bill horny, dusky on cere; irides red-brown; legs dusky- 
black. 
Adult : above cinereous-black ; back and rump white, beneath 
dark-brown ; the feathers centred lighter; the short feathers of 
the crop deep-brown; ruff whitish, the feathers short and downy ; 
head and neck nearly bare, with a few scattered hair-hke feathers. 
The young is paler, with the head and neck more or less clothed 
with whitish down; bill and cere horny-black; legs black; 
irides brown. 
The White-backed is the commonest Vulture we have; it 
occurs in great numbers all over the country; they breed during 
December, January, and February, choosing lofty trees in the 
neighbourhood of villages, in the tops of which they make huge 
platform nests, sometimes as many as twelve or fourteen in a 
single tree. Jerdon says: “It breeds by preference on rocky 
clifis.’ I doubt this, as I have found the nests on trees, adjacent 
to cliffs, in every way suitable. I have never found more than a 
