CINEREOUS VULTURE. 11 
the head and neck naked, and of a livid bluish colour; feathers long 
and curved, re-ascending obliquely from the inferior part of the side 
of the neck towards the nape; other feathers loose and light, covering 
the insertion of the wings. Cere and sides of the posterior half of 
the beak flesh-coloured, with a violet tinge; tip of the beak and 
claws black; iris brown. Legs covered with feathers above, the 
remainder naked and bluish, like the naked part of the head and 
neck, but of a clearer tint. 
Young bird, brown, inclining to fawn-coloured; centre of the feathers 
darker, the head and neck covered with a bluish grey down. — (Degland.) 
In the natural order of arrangement the Vultur Kolbii of Daudin, 
Le Vautour Cliasseftente of Temminck, would follow the bird just 
described. M. Temminck considered that the species was quite distinct, 
and always to be distinguished, at all ages, by the form of the feathers 
of the wings of the superior parts, which are all rounded at the end, 
— whilst these same feathers • in the Griffon Vulture are long and 
pointed; the ruff is also not so long or so thick. The general 
colours of the plumage is often that of a clear ' cafe au lait,' and 
according to age varied into a light or dark brown. The adult is 
nearly entirely of a whitish dove-colour, whilst the plumage of the 
adult Griffon is of a uniform light brown. The crop of a dark 
brown; head' and neck covered with a thick down. Total length, 
four feet. 
Later writers, however, have considered that the Chasseficnte of 
M. Temminrk, is only a variety of the Griffon. 
Dr. Riippell, in reviewing the species of the genus Vultur of modern 
ornithologists, in the "Annales des Sciences Xaturelles," and the 
"Bulletin des Sciences Naturelles," separates the Chassefente from V. 
Kolbii, and states that the latter is not found in Europe. Schlegel 
does not admit V. Kolbii, but notices what he calls a race, or per- 
manent variety of the Griffon, under the name of Vultur fichus 
occidentalis ; while Degland states his positive conviction that the 
differences given by Temminck, are those of age only; that the sup- 
posed V. Kolbii, said to have been killed in Sardinia, and sent to 
M. Hardy, of Dieppe, by Temminck himself, is a veritable adult 
Vultur Griffon; and that he has seen other skins in Paris, upon 
which a high price was fixed, in which he could find no characters 
essentially different from those of the V. Griffon he had received 
from Bayonne and de Bagneres-de-Bigorre, or which he had examined 
in various collections. Under these circumstances I shall omit the V. 
Kolbii from the list of European Vultures. 
