Zoological Socieltj. 375 



tegumeut ia the ClusiacecB, as well as in the Magnoliacece, must be 

 a true arillus. 



The facts thus demonstrated will, Mr. Miers argues, necessarily 

 change our views of the affinities of the Clicsiaceee, serving to bring 

 the order into close proximity with the Rhhobolacea, a relationship 

 long ago pointed out by Carabessedes, founded upon their floral 

 structure, but now rendered more evident by the great similarity 

 observable in their extraordinary embryonal development. The 

 latter family exhibits likewise an embryo with a gigantic radicle, 

 and exceedingly small cotyledons, but here these are separated from 

 the radicular body by a slender free caulicle or neck ; now if we 

 imagine the suppression of this caulicular extension, and the close 

 approximatiofi of tlie minute cotyledons to its monstrous radicle, 

 there would be little or no difference in the structure of the embryo 

 in the two families. While these circumstances tend also to draw 

 closer the affinity of the Clusiacere to the Hypericacecs and Marc- 

 graaviacece, they tend to remove them far from the Ternstrcemiaceee, 

 with which order they have been hitherto considered to be most 

 intimately related. The farther consideration of the real affinities 

 of the ClusiuceeE will be more fully examined by the author, who 

 intends on a future occasion to treat of the organography, floral 

 structure, and generic features of the whole family, restricted within 

 the limits he proposes. 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 

 January 10, 1854. — H. F. Walter, Esq., iu the Chair. 



Notes ox the Habits of Indian Birds. — Part I. 

 By Lieut. Burgess. 



Oi'der I. Haptores. 



Family Vulturid-E. 



Genus Yultur. 



Vultur Pondiceriantjs. Black A^ulture. 



This Vulture, as far as I have had opportunities of observing it, is 

 much more common in the Deccan than either the large {Vultur Indi- 

 cus) or the small brown Vulture {Vultur Beugalensis). I have never, 

 however, seen more than two or three together, and these generally 

 in the neighbourhood of the low ranges of hills which intersect that 

 part of the country. As this bird has doubtless been already figured, 

 it is not my purpose in these notes to enter into any further descrip- 

 tion of it, but merely to state what I have observed of its habits, 

 food, manner and time of nesting, with any other information regard- 

 ing it which I may have gained by actual investigation, or learned 

 from credible sources. In its habits the Black Vulture, I should cer- 

 tainl)' say, is not gregarious ; I do not remember to have seen more 

 than four or five together, and then it has been for the purpose of 

 partaking of a social meal. It flies in circles with the wings extended, 



