G6 Mr. W. Jesse on the 



a few very faint mauve and reddish markings, and measures 

 3-lG ,/ x2-5G". 



No. 1194. Gyps indicus. Indian Long-billed Vulture. 



Reid, in his e Birds of the Lucknow Civil Division/ has 

 written as follows : — 



" I include the Long-hilled Brown Vulture with some 

 hesitation, though Capt. Irby, in his paper on the Birds of 

 Oudh and Kumaon, vide 'The Ibis/ vol. iii. 1861, p. 217, 

 states that it is just as common as Pseudogyps bengalensis ; 

 and that one was ' caught inside a horse's belly at Alumbagh.' 

 Now there is no Vulture here as common as P. bengalensis ; if 

 there is, it is certainly singular that I have not obtained 

 specimens. On the other hand, I have occasionally seen a 

 Vulture that I thought could not be G. bengalensis, but 

 whether it was G. indicus or G. fulvescens — not to mention 

 the probability of G. pallescens or G. tenuirostris occurring 

 ■ — I cannot say, but should think that it was G. indicus." 

 To this I have nothing to add, save to say that, like Reid, I 

 have occasionally seen what I believe to have been G. indicus, 

 but, like him, I have not yet obtained a specimen. 



No. 1196. Pseudogyps bengalensis. Indian White- 

 backed Vulture. 



Chamar Gidh [H.]. 



This Vulture is very common and a permanent resident. 

 Though slow in rising from the ground, when once aloft it 

 sails like a majestic man-of-war. High up in the air, this 

 species and Otogyps calvus can be readily distinguished, as, 

 even if too far off to make out the white waistcoat, the 

 more pointed pinions of the latter serve to identify it. The 

 power of the Vulture's beak and the rapidity with which 

 it feeds must be seen to be realized. On one occasion mv 

 servants knocked over a mad jackal and did not quite kill 

 it. Immediately some Vultures made their appearance, 

 and, despite the fact that the poor brute was still alive, 

 commenced their horrid meal. The cries of the victim dis- 



