EiDGWAY on the American Vultures. 83 



Humerus 



Ulna and radius 



Femur 



Tibia 



Tarsus 



Head 



Wing from carpal joint 



Cathartes burrovianus, Cass. — Recent authorities * having 

 almost uniformly ignoi-ed the claims of this bird to specific rank, I 

 have, in the absence of any opportunity to examine the type 

 specimen in the Museum of the Philadelphia Academy, carefully 

 read Mr. Cassin's original description in order to satisfy myself 

 whether we are justified in the suspicion that Mr. Cassin's supposed 

 species was based on a small specimen of C. aura. Upon reading 

 Mr. Cassin's description I was surprised to find how well and un- 

 mistakably it applied to the bird usually called " C. uruhitinga, 

 Pelz.," in every pai'ticular. In the description, as quoted below, I 

 have italicized the phrases which are strictly and peculiarly diag- 

 nostic of C. " uruhitinga" in order to show at a glance how certain 

 it is that Cassin's C. bwrovianus is the same bird. The only ques- 

 tion, it appears to me, can be as to the locality, which may be 

 erroneous, since C. uruhitinga is not known to occur anywhere out 

 of Eastern South America, though the evidence to this effect, it 

 should be remembered, is purely negative. 



The earliest notice of this species is that of Brisson (1760), the 

 Vultur brasiliensis of this author being unquestionably the same 

 species, as his full and very accurate description clearly shows. 

 Therefore it is quite possible that some author may have applied 

 the name brasiliensis to the species under consideration before Mr. 

 Cassin's name burrovianus was bestowed upon it ; in which event 

 the proper specific term would be brasiliensis, and not burrovianus. 

 I cannot find, however, that such use of Brisson's name has been 

 made. It is altogether probable that burrovianus will stand. 



Mr. Cassin's description (Pr. Philad. Acad., March, 1845, p. 212) 

 is as follows : ■ — ■ 



" Head naked, smooth, with the nostrils large and oval ; plumage of the 

 body entirely black, with a greenish-blue gloss, paler beneath ; the feathers 



* Conf. Elliot, Illustr. Am. B., II, 1866; Allen, Bull. Mus. Comp. ZooL, 

 II, 1871, p. 311 ; Sharpe, Cat. Ace. Brit. Mus., I, 1874, p. 28 ; Gurnet, 

 The Ibis, 1875, p. 94. 



