108 ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. 



Le Vaillant. Daudin first adopted it in his Ornithology 

 as the Vultur auricularis, and was followed by Latham 

 and other systematic writers. In the first volume of 

 the Annales du Museum he has instituted a comparison 

 between it and the Pondicherry Vulture ; but this is 

 almost wholly founded on Le Vaillant's figure and 

 descriptions, the only original materials which he ap- 

 pears to have seen consisting of a head and neck in 

 Le Vaillant's collection. His own figure is, as it pur- 

 ports to be, a representation of the Indian species, and 

 not of the African, for which M. Lesson has erroneously 

 quoted it in the article Vautour of the Dictionnaire des 

 Sciences Naturelles. We have every reason to believe 

 that the Society's bird is the first specimen, either dead 

 or alive, that has been brought to Europe. 



In size this gigantic bird is fully equal to the Condor, 

 the larger specimens measuring, according to Le Vail- 

 lant, upwards of ten feet in the expanse of their wings. 

 The head and greater part of the neck are of the 

 colour of raw flesh, and exhibit in their adult state no 

 appearance of down or feathers, bvit only a few scarcely 

 perceptible scattered hairs. The throat is covered with 

 blackish hairs, and the lower part of the neck behind 

 with a kind of ruff of crisped and curling feathers of 

 the same colour, within which the bird withdraws its 

 head while in a state of repose, especially after feeding; 

 an attitude which is common to most of the Vultures. 

 The folds on its neck take their origin behind the ears, 

 surround the upper parts of these organs, and then 

 pass downwards for several inches ; they are some- 

 what irregular in their outline, and measure nearly an 

 inch in breadth at their widest part. All the feathers 

 of the body, wings, and tail are of a nearly uniform 

 blackish brown, somewhat lighter on the under than on 

 the upper surface, and on the margins than in the 

 middle. Those of the breast, belly, and sides beneath 



