1890.] 



EXTINCT BIRDS FROM MALTA. 



407 



figs. 7, la,"] b\ which agrees fairly well in relative size with the 

 fossil limb-bones, indicates a Vulture referable to Gyps rather than 

 to Fultur. The whole of the characters of this vertebra are indeed 

 so essentially the same as those of the existing G. /ulcus, even down 

 to the presence of the median pneumatic foramen, that it would be 

 waste of words to recapitulate them. Indeed the only distinctive 

 mark of the fossil, in addition to its superior dimensions, is the 

 somewhat greater prominence of the tubercle on the inferior surface 

 of the centrum immediately behind the anterior pit. This slight 

 difference could not, however, be regarded as more than an indi- 

 vidual or specific one. The length of the fossil centrum in the median 

 line is 0,029, and the greatest transverse diameter 0,023. The first 



Fig. 2. 



Anterior and inferior aspects of a 

 late cervical vertebra of Vulhir 

 monachus. 



Anterior and inferior aspects 

 of the corresponding vertebra of 

 a small individual of Gypsfulvus. 



Letters as in Plate XXXVI. fig. 7. 



of two later cervicals in the Museum (No. 49354, cl), apparently 

 coming next behind the preceding specimen, agrees exactly with the 

 corresponding vertebra of G. fulvus, having the same pair of 

 pneumatic foramina at the roots of the lower transverse processes. 

 An imperfect anterior cervical (No. 49354*) resembles the seventh 

 cervical of G. fulvus in the narrowness of the inferior surface of the 

 centrum, which appears to be the most characteristic feature of the 



vertebrae of the anterior cervical region. 



28^ 



