THE IBIS. 



NEW SERIES. 



No. XXII. APRIL 1870. 



X. — Notes relating chiefly to the Birds of India. 

 By Edward Blyth, Hon. Mem. As. Soc. 



An examination, last autumn, of the Leyden Museum enabled 

 me to make a number of brief notes, some of which I trust may 

 be useful to students of the ornithology of India. I could 

 not, however, spare the time to draw up descriptions in detail of 

 all the various birds I here mention. 



The species and races of Gyps will only be properly under- 

 stood when adequate series of well-prepared skins of each of 

 them are brought together. I have now seen several stuffed 

 specimens and one fine living adult of G. kolbii of South Africa, 

 which Mr. Gurney agrees with me (Ibis, 1869, p. 287) in re- 

 garding as distinct from G. fulvus. The living example is in 

 the Zoological Garden at Antwerp, where it is kept in company 

 with adults of G. fulvus. In the hue of its upper parts it re- 

 sembles G. indicus [verus= Vultur tenuirostris, Hodgs.), while the 

 lower parts are white instead of being deep brown as in G. fulvus. 

 The head and neck also are much less clad, the black skin 

 showing conspicuously, in which it again resembles G. indicus. 

 Of the last-mentioned species I found one stuffed specimen 

 only, in non-adult plumage, in the Leyden Museum, to the 

 specific distinctions of which I called the attention of Professor 

 Schlegel, who is now satisfied of their validity. Whether the lli- 



N. S. — VOL. VI. N 



