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Genus VULTUK fLinnceus.J 

 VXJLTTJR CALVUS (Scopoli.) 



VULTUR PONTICERIANUS (Latham.) 

 PONDICHERY VULTURE. 



This species and the succeeding one fVultur auricularisj 

 were separated by Mr. G. K. Gray, in his magnificent and most 

 useful work on the " Genera of Birds," into a distinct genus, 

 to which he gave the name of Otogyps., dra^^oi fi'om the ear-like 

 flaps of skin on either side of the head and neck, by which this 

 species is always distinguished, and which also occui* in some 

 examples of the Vultur auricularis; but the uncertainty of this 

 featiu'e in the latter species appears to me to stamp it as a 

 peculiarity of too fluctuating a character to form a satisfactory 

 basis for generic distinction. I have, therefore, ti'eated Mr. 

 Gray's two genera of Otogyps and Vultur as one, under the 

 latter title, which is the original designation of the genus. 

 This Vulture, which was first described by Sonjierat, under 

 the name of Vautour Royale de Pondicher-y, is found thi'oughout 

 the whole peninsula of Hiadostan, and also occiu-s in Bm-mafi 

 and Pegu. It is a curious circumstance, and one that, 

 perhaps, may with propriety here be noticed, that neither 

 this nor any other species of Vultiu-e has as yet been ascer- 

 tained to exist in the island of Ceylon, a fact which is the 

 more remarkable when the proximity of that island to the 

 Indian peninsula is taken into consideration. The food of the 

 Pondichcry Vultiu-e consists of canion ; and when it appears 

 in the neighbom-hood of a carcase, it is said that the smaller 

 Indian Vidtiu-e, Gyps hengalensis, always gives way to it, in 

 the same manner that the Aura and Black Vultiu'cs give way 

 to the Kiug Vultiu'e of America. The Pondichery Yultui'c 



