60 ZOOLOGY OF INDIA. 



The vulture tribe occupies the foremost place in our or- 

 nithological arrangements, and is represented in India by- 

 several species. Of these we shall mention only two. 

 The Pondicherry vulture (F. Ponticerianus) equals the size 

 of a large goose ; its head and neck are naked and flesh- 

 coloured ; there is a white collar on the upper part of the 

 breast, but the prevailing colour of the plumage is brown. 

 The legs are yellow, and the bill nearly black. It occurs 

 chiefly in the district from which it derives its specific 

 name. Another species is called the Indian vulture (F. 

 Indicus.) Its plumage is of a fulvous-brown, each feather 

 being paler on the edges. Like most of its congeners, it 

 is extremely voracious, and freqyents alike the shores of 

 the sea and the banks of rivers, preying on dead fish or any 

 other putrid substance, — from the bloated corpses of the 

 human species, which are not unfrequently seen floating 

 down the sacred waters of the Ganges, to the more insig- 

 nificant carcasses of the reptile race. 



Among the numerous links which serve to connect one 

 tribe with another may be mentioned that remarkable bird 

 the lammergeyer, or bearded- vulture {Gypcztus harhatus of 

 Storr). The Greek term, which has been adopted as the 

 generic appellation, literally signifies vulture-eagle, and ap- 

 propriately expresses its intermediate position between the 

 species which rank respectively under one or other branch 



duck (A. n/t/ia), the common vi'ild-duck (.4. ioscAas), the teal (A.crecca), 

 the gadwall {A. strepera), the lufled duck {A. fulig^da). the garganey 

 (A. qiierquedula), the castaneous duck (jl. nyroca). Many of these 1 

 have verified by an attenlive examination and comparison with European 

 specimens, while others rest upon the authority of Mr. Gould, who, as 

 the author of the accurate and sumptuous " Century of Birds from the 

 Himmalaya Mountains," has necessarily directed a strict attention to the 

 ornithology of Northern India. The following eimmeration contains the 

 names of certain species, for the most part as yet neither figured nor 

 described, which approach so closely to the European species that we 

 may regard them as their Asiatic representatives. Certain perceptible, 

 though, in some instances, very feebly-defined characters of distinction, 

 prevent our considering them as identically the same. In the mean 

 time, however, we shall indicate them merely by their corresponding 

 English names, viz. The kestrel, Sfiarrow-hawk, turtle-dove, raven, 

 -green woodpecker, black and white woodpecker, nutcracker, red-legged 

 partridge, jay, golden oriole, nuthatch, blackbird, bullfinch, greater tit- 

 mouse, all our wagtails, crtei>er, redbreast, titlark, tree-lark, sparrow, 

 tree-sparrow, and several others. 



