NEOPHRON. RAPTORES. NEOPHRON. 7 



organ of smell*. It is reported to breed in caverns and the 

 clefts of rocks, but the number and colour of its eggs have 

 not been described. Its cry is seldom heard, and when at 

 rest it generally sits upon the ground with the wings depend- 

 ing, a habit common to the Vulturidae. In a living state it 

 emits a very strong effluvium, partaking of the nature of its 

 corrupted food, and when killed it putrefies very rapidly. 



PLATE A. Represents this Bird of the natural size. When General 

 killed, it measured two feet seven inches in length, and 

 in extent of wing five feet nine inches. From the fore- 

 head to the tip, its bill measured two inches and a-half ; 

 the tarsus three inches, and the middle toe with its claw 

 the same. Bill brownish-black or horn-coloured ; the 

 cere (which bulges a little at the base, and occupies half 

 the length of the bill) wine-yellow ; nostrils situated 

 near the middle of the cere, large and open in front. 

 Crown of the head, cheeks, and throat, covered with a 

 naked skin, of a livid flesh-coloured red, with a few 

 straggling bristles between the bill and eyes, and upon 

 the margins of the mandibles. Ears round, open, and 

 large. Occiput and nape covered with a close thick 

 set white down, with small black feathers intermingled. 

 Neck with clothed long, arched, and acuminated feathers, 

 forming a kind of ruff of a deep umber-brown, tipped 

 with cream yellow. Back and scapulars cream- white ; 

 the latter intermixed and varied with umber brown. 

 Lesser wing-coverts, nearest the body, deep umber- 

 brown, margined with a paler shade ; these are succeeded 

 by two rows of cream-coloured sharp-pointed feathers. 

 Greater coverts umber-brown, varied with cream-white. 

 Secondaries pale umber-brown, with their tips and mar- 



* To some interesting experiments relating to this subject, I refer my 

 readers to observations on the habits, &c. of the Turkey Buzzard and Car- 

 rion Crow, ( Cathartes aura and C. Uruba,) by J. J. AUDUBON, published 

 in the Edinburgh Philos. Jour, for October 1826. 



