THE SOCIABLE VIJLTUKE. 107 



There is also another reason why we ought not to be 

 over hasty in the estabhshment of this generic subdi- 

 vision. There exists in India a second species, the 

 Pondiclierry A^ulture of Latham, which, to judge from 

 the figures and descriptions that have been given of it, 

 is very closely allied to that which we have now before 

 us. Of this Indian species we have no knowledge, 

 except from the miserable plate and meagre description 

 of Sonnerat, and the spirited representations of Daudin 

 and Temminck ; the former in the Annales du Museum, 

 and the latter in his magnificent Planches Coloriees. 

 From these we are led to believe that, although clearly 

 belonging to the group of which we have just defined 

 the leading characters, the PondicheriT Vulture has 

 the membranous fold of the neck much less extensively 

 developed, and thus evinces an approximation to the 

 Californian Vulture of Shaw, from which it appears to 

 differ generically in little else than in this particular 

 and in the form and direction of its nostrils. We trust 

 that an opportunity of examining this remarkable bird, 

 and some other eastern species which are still very 

 imperfectly known, may ere long be affoi-ded us ; for 

 without such an examination, it will be impossible to 

 form a just estimate of the value of the characters on 

 which our subdivisions have been founded, and of the 

 extent to which they ought to be carried. 



The Sociable Vulture is a bird of extieme rarity. It 

 was first described by Le Vaillant in his Travels in the 

 Interior of Africa under the name yf Oricou, fancifully 

 derived from the folding of the skin around its ears and 

 along its neck. A more detailed account of it was 

 afterwards furnished by the same distinguished orni- 

 thologist in his Oiseaux d'Afrique, where a full grown 

 male is veiy accurately figured. We do not find that 

 it has since been observed by any zoologist ; for all tiie 

 accounts of it with which we have met are copied I'rom 



