VULTUKIN.E. 5 



or rufous, or even a deep bay, (the tint varies in different stages 

 of plumage) each feather conspicuously paler shafted, and most of 

 them ( in the younger birds ) conspicuously, though narrowly, 

 paler centred. Hume, " Rough Notes." 



The Bay Vulture does not occur in the Deccan or South 

 Mahratta country, but is not uncommon in Central India, Guzerat, 

 and Sind. Of its nidification, little appears to be known : it is 

 said to breed during January and February, building a large plat- 

 form nest on lofty trees, and laying a single white egg, larger 

 than either calvus or bengalensis, 



Gyps pallescens, Hume. 



4 bis. Butler, Guzerat ; Stray Feathers, Vol. Ill, p. 442 ; Deccan 



and South Mahratta country ; Stray Feathers, Vol. IX, 



p. 369 ; Swinhoe and Barnes, Central India ; Ibis, 1885, p. 54. 

 THE LONG-BILLED PALE-BROWN VULTURE. 



Length, 36 to 39 ; expanse, 85 to 90 ; wing, 23 to 25'5 ; tail 

 from vent, 10 to 11 ; tarsus, 3'5 to 4 ; bill from gape, 2'65 to 2'95 ; 

 weight, 11 to 14 Ibs. 



Bill and cere pale greenish, yellowish horny on culmen and 

 blackish towards tips of mandibles ; bare skin of head and face 

 dusky ashy-leaden ; irides brown ; legs and feet dingy ashy-leaden ; 

 margins of scales whitish ; claws creamy-horny. 



In the perfect adult brownish-white hair-like feathers are 

 thinly sprinkled over the head, nape, cheeks, and throat ; the 

 upper half of the back and sides of the neck are perfectly bare ; 

 the crop-patch is closely covered with silky tight-fitting, dark 

 hair-brown feathers ; the whole of the rest of the lower surface 

 is a pale whity-brown, becoming almost a pure white towards the 

 vent and lower tail-coverts ; the ruff is full, soft, and pure white, 

 of very downy feathers, the webs much disintegrated ; the whole 

 mantle is pale earthy -brown, the centres of the lesser, and all 

 but the tips and margins of the larger scapulars being dark 

 hair-brown! 



The lower back, rump and upper tail-coverts white, tinged with 

 pale earthy brown, many of the feathers, however, especially of the 

 longer tail-coverts, being brown at the base, but so broadly tip- 

 ped and margined with the paler color that little of the brown 

 shows ; the primaries and tail-feathers are deep chocolate-brown ; 

 the secondaries and tertiaries hair-brown, more or less suffused 

 on their outer webs with pale dingy earthy or fulvous-brown. 



A quite young bird has the top and back of the head, and 

 upper part of the back of the neck, thickly covered with white 

 down ; the rest of the head and neck, as in the adult ; the 

 crop-patch much lighter than in the adult, is covered with pale, 

 dove-colored brown feathers ; the rest of the lower surface is 

 pale brown, becoming albescent towards the vent, each feather 

 broadly centred ( most conspicuously so on the sides and breast), 

 with dingy white ; the ruff, of long, linear lanceolate feathers, is a 



