THE VULTURES. 45 



consists of ten feathers in a row running down the inside of the upper arm : of these, the fourth 

 from the elbow is 8 inches in length. The paraptcrum superiits is small, and consists of five 

 feathers (indicated on the left side of fig. 1), in the axilla, which certainly stand exactly in the 

 direction of the axillary tract, but are separated from it by the superior wing-space (apterium 

 alare super ius). The number of remiges is 31, of which 10 are inserted upon the hand, as in all 

 the Diurnal Birds of Prey ; the first and fifth are of equal length, as are also the three intervening, 

 much longer ones. All the five are distinguished from the following feathers by a dilatation of 

 the inner half of the vane, which is very long and large on the first, and gradually becomes 

 shorter. Prom the sixth to the tenth these feathers rapidly decrease in length, but those inserted 

 on the forearm are all of equal length ; the twenty-eighth is the elbow-feather, and the thirty-first 

 is very short. The crural tract is of considerable strength, especially on the outside ; it extends 

 over the greater part of the tarsus, which, however, is truly naked at its lower extremity, although 

 it is covered by the feathers inserted higher up. The long tail projects considerably beyond the 

 contracted wings, and contains twelve graduated rectrices. The oil-gland is clothed with downy 

 feathers, not only at its apex, but also upon its anterior surface. 



2. VULTUR. 



Differs from Gypa&os in having the head and upper part of the neck sometimes quite naked, 

 sometimes clothed with down, but is allied to it in having the two pectoral bands of the inferior 

 tract separated by a gap from the plumage of the lower surface of the neck or gular portion 

 of the inferior tract. This gular portion, however, is undivided, and not, as in Gypaetos, 

 furcate, and forms a peculiar, large shield, composed of densely packed, down-less contour- 

 feathers beneath the throat. 



Savigny's beautiful investigations ('Descr. de 1'Egypte,' tome xxii, p. 231) first showed 

 that the Vultures form two clearly distinguishable families. These two sections differ from 

 each other pterylographically. 



a. GYPS, Savigny. 

 (SMALL-HEADED VULTURES.) 



With a small head, naked above ; nearly vertical, namnv, fissure-like nostrils ; a tongue with 

 spinose margins ; and fourteen tail-feathers. 



Of this group I have examined Vulturf/dvus, one of which I kept alive for five months, and 

 V. indicus and V. yalericulatus, both in skins from Lamare-Picquot's collection. The most 

 important common pterylographic character, besides the above-mentioned number of rectrices, is 

 probably the presence of a distinct lumbar tract, composed of one or two rows of feathers, and 

 separated by a true space from both the crural and the spinal tracts. To this may be added, the 

 dilatation of the posterior portion of the spinal tract, which is very considerable upon the pelvis, 

 but becomes pointed anteriorly, and projects with its apex between the arms of the anterior 

 part. 



