ACCIPITRES. SJUy 



feathers. The strength of their talons does not correspond with their size, 

 and they make more use of their bill than of their claws. Their wings 

 are so long, that in walking they keep them in a state of semi-extension. 

 They are a cowardly genus, feeding oftener on carrion than on a living 

 prey ; when they have fed, their crop forms a great protuberance above 

 the fourchette, a fetid humour flows from their nostrils, and they are al- 

 most reduced to a state of stupid insensibility. 



VuLTUR, Cuv. 



The Vultures, properly so called, have a large and strong bill, the nos- 

 trils pierced transversely at its base ; the head and neck without feathers 

 or caruncles, and a collar of long feathers, or of down, at the root of the 

 neck. They have hitherto been found only in the eastern continent. 



V.fulvus, Gmel. ; V. trcncalos, Bechstein; Le Percnoptere, Buif. 

 Enl. 326, and Le Grand Vautour, Id. Hist, des Ois. I. in 4to. pl.V;* 

 The Vulture, Albinus, III. i; Nauman, pi. 2. (The Fulvous Vul- 

 ture). Grey, or of a brown verging upon fulvous ; the down on the 

 head and neck cinereous ; collar white, sometimes mixed with brown ; 

 quills of the wing and tail brown ; bill and feet lead-coloured ; belly 

 of the adult white. It is the most universally diffused species, and 

 is found on the mountains of the whole of the eastern continent. Its 

 body surpasses in size that of the swan."j~ 



V. cinereus, Gmel. Col. 425; Nauman, pi. v; Vieillot, Gall. pi. i; 

 Arrian of La Perouse ; Black Vulture, Cinereous Vulture, &c. (The 

 Brown Vulture). A blackish-brown ; the collar mounting obliquely 

 towards the occiput, which is furnished with a tuft of feathers ; the 

 feet and the membrane of the base of the bill of a bluish violet. It 

 is equally common with the preceding, and is still larger, frequently 

 attacking living animals. J 



V. auricularis, Daud. ; Vaill. Afr. pi. ix. (The Oricou). Black- 

 ish ; a longitudinal fleshy crest on each side of the neck, above the 

 ear. From Africa. § 

 America produces Vultures remarkable for the caruncles which sur- 

 mount the membrane of the base of their bill : the latter is as large as in 

 the preceding species, but the nostrils are oval and longitudinal. They 

 constitute the Sarcoramphus of Dumeril.ll 



* The history of the Grand Vautour of Buffon belongs to the following species, 

 but the figure is that oi t\\e fulvtis. 



t The Vautour des hides, Lath, and Sonnerat, Tern. PI. Col. 26, is at least a closely 

 allied species, as well as the Chassefiente, Vaill. Affr. pi. 10. Add V.agypius, Tern. 

 Co\. iQl.—V.imperialis, lb. 426. 



N. B. The Fawn-coloured Vulture is the genus Gyps of Savigny. The Brown Vul- 

 ture is the type of his genus jEgypius. 



X The V. monachus, Edw. 290; Vaill. 12 and Col. 13, only differs from the Brown 

 Vulture in the bill, which is somewhat shorter. The Crested Vulture {V. cristatus, 

 Gm.) is only known to me by a bad figure of Gesner, probably taken from some 

 species of eagle. The V. barbnrus is the same as the Lamer-Getjer, Falco barbatus. 



§ The Pondicherry Vulture, Sonnerat, pi. cv. or V. jmitecirianus, PI. Col. 2, is 

 nearly allied to the Oricou. Its lateral crests do not ascend so high, and its bill is 

 not so strong. 



II M. Vieillot has changed this name into Zoppilota or Gypagus. 

 VOL. I. T 



