CATHARTIKJi — THE AMERICAN VULTURES. 335 



Family CATHARTID^. — The American Vultures. 



auharlMa. Giiay, 18-12. — Hi'.vlioy, P. Z. S. 1867, p. 463. Cat/uiiiina; Lafu. 1839. 

 Sarcorluimphidoc, (.iliAY, 1848. Gri/jiliiaa; Hkicii. ISuil. 



The cliaracter.s of tliis faniily have been given in sufficient detail (III, 1), 

 so tliat a short <lia,L,niosis, .sliowiiig its ino.st readily observable peculiarities, 

 will here be siillicieut. 



Char. Whole head, nnd sometimes thu nock, nuked; eyes prominent, and not shaded 

 by a superciliary shield. Cere much elongated, much deprcs.^ed anloiioi ly below the very 

 arched cnlnien ; nostrils hMigitudinal, horizontal, the two conilucut or perforate. Middle 

 toe voi-y long, and the hind one nnich iilibreviated. A web between the base of the inner 

 and middle toes. 



The family Vulturidcc} as long recognized, included all the naked-headed, 

 carrion-feeding Eajjtores of both tlie Old and the New World. The later 

 researches of science, however, liave. shown the necessity of separating the 

 Vultiu'cs of the latter continent from those of the former, and ranking 

 them as a distinct faniily, while at the same time the Old AVorld Vultures 

 are found to be merely modi tied Fahonklw. The resemblance between the 

 Cuthirtldcv and the vulturine Falvonidw is merely a superficial one of anal- 

 ogy, and not one of aihnity. Being the scavengers of the countries tliey 

 inhabit, tlie latter thus perform the same oifice in nature as the former, and for 

 adaptation to a similar mode of life their e.\-ternal characters are modified to 

 correspond. Close, however, as is tiie external resemblance between the two 

 groups, tlieir osteological structure and internal anr^tomy is entiivly different. 

 Tlie CathurtMlw differ from the Vulturincc^ as to their external structure 

 in the following particulars, the osteological structure being entirely diflerent 

 in the two groups, the latter being like the Falconidcr in all the characters 

 which separate the latter family from the CrifharHda-.. 



Cathartidae. Nostrils horizontal, perforate ; a well-developed web between the inner 



and middle toos, at the ba.se. 



ViUturinae. Nostrils vertical, not perforate ; no trace of web between inner and middle 



toes. 



In habits, the Catlmrtidw resemble the vulturine Ffdconida of the Old 

 World. " They lack the strengtJi and sjiirit of t\-pical Raptorvs, and rarely 

 attack animals capable of oflering resistance ; they are voracious and indis- 

 criminate gormandizers of carrion and animal refuse of all sorts, — efficient 

 and almost indispensable scavengers in the warm countries where they 

 abound. They are uncleanly in their mode of feeding ; the nature of their 

 food renders them ill-scented, and when disturbed they eject the fetid contents 



1 Established by Vigoi's, in 1825. 



a From the Vulturincc are excluded the gtuex^ Gypxim mA Neophron, each of which i.roba- 

 Dly constitutes a subfamily by itself. 



