NO. 6 REVISION OF AMERICAN VULTURES — WETMORE 1 5 



identified, as I have found that specimens under urubitinga include 

 several Cat hart es aura ruficollis. Part of his larger birds were the 

 species that is described beyond. Lehmann (1957, pp. 118-121) gave 

 a summary with further details divided under the two subspecies, 

 and in this proposed to separate the two by a third race that he named 

 Cathartes burrovianus dugandi, with the type a female in the Ameri- 

 can Museum of Natural History from Caicara, Bolivar, Venezuela. 

 With recognition of only two races in this species, this name falls 

 under C. b. urubitinga. 



In June 1954, through the kind attention of Dr. G. Rokitansky 

 I had the opportunity to examine Pelzeln's type material in the 

 Naturhistorisches Museum in Vienna. The specimens in the series 

 include three adult and two immature birds collected by Joh. Natterer 

 between 1817 and 1835. Though at one time four of these specimens 

 had been mounted for exhibition, all were in a fair state of preserva- 

 tion when their age as museum specimens is considered. Three, an 

 adult male, adult female, and one of the immature birds, are labeled 

 from "Forte do Rio Branco, Nord-Bras.," a locality that corresponds 

 to Forte Sao Joaquim, Rio Branco, in modern Brazil. This is accepted 

 above as the type locality since the others are marked only "Brasilien," 

 as is an adult cotype in the U.S. National Museum, one of the original 

 specimens studied by Pelzeln, received in exchange and entered in 

 our catalog in 1864. My notes on the entire series fully substantiate 

 the name urubitinga as applicable to the yellow-headed turkey vulture 

 and to its southern race. 



CATHARTES MELAMBROTUS sp.nov.: Greater Yellow-headed Vulture. 



Characters. — With prominent caruncles on the neck, and head color, 

 as in Cathartes burrovianus Cassin, but size definitely larger ; tail 

 decidedly longer with broader rectrices, the central pair especially 

 much wider ; plumage entirely deep black with greenish and purplish 

 sheen, without mixture of brown in the wing coverts, or elsewhere. 



Description.— Ty^t, U.S.N.M. no. 483532, male (fully adult), 

 collected by Pinney Schiffer at Kartabo, British Guiana, January 15, 

 1930. Plumage deep black throughout, with an iridescent sheen, 

 greenish in the main, but in part dull bluish with the light at certain 

 angles ; under surface of wings and tail dull dark brownish gray ; 

 concealed down pure white. 



Measurements. — Males (9 specimens), wing 488-530 (505.7, aver- 

 age of 8) ; tail 252-275 (264.4) ; culmen from cere 23.2-26.2 (24.6, 



