16 BIRDS OF INDIA. 



when he wishes to mount higher. If suddenly frightened, or 

 bulHed by his common tormentors, Govind Kites {Milvus govinda), 

 or Indian Jackdaws (Corvus splendens)^ he will shoot like 

 an arrow down the ravine, then rise up with an easy but very 

 rapid flight. It is by no means a shy bird, and will often pasa 

 within a few yards of one when searching for food. The nest is 

 always built among rocks and inaccessible places. On one of the 

 lesser rano-es near Simla, I found its nest and two young on 

 a clifF overhanging a steep ravine ; a vast collection of bones of 

 sheep and cattle was strewed around — the refuse of one of the 

 European stations not many miles distant. In the stomach of one 

 killed by me on the Mountains of Cashmere, I found several large 

 bones, together with a hoof of an Ibex. ]\Iany tales are told by 

 the natives of the Himalayas of the boldness and strength of 

 this species, that the ibex, young bears, sheep, and goats are 

 often carried away." 



Bonaparte makes three species, but keeps the Indian one under 

 G. harbatus. Of the other two, G. occidentcdis, from the Pyrennees, 

 Sardinia, Arabia, and Abyssinia, is smaller and brighter colored ; 

 and the other species, G. nudijpes, from Africa, has the lower part 

 of the tarsus quite nude. 



The sub-family GyroniERACiNJE, Gray and Bonaparte, is founded 

 on the Angola Vulture., Gy polder ax Angolensis., figured in Gray's 

 Gen. of Birds, pi. 4. But little is known of its habits. It appears 

 to be a link joining the true Vultures to the Neophron, or perhaps 

 uniting the Vultures to the Polyboridce, and was figured by Jurdine 

 as the Polyhorus hypoleucus. The bill is lengthened, but strong 

 and compressed ; it has the colours of Neophron, and the head and 

 neck are more clothed with feathers, even in the adult, than in 

 Neophron and Sarcoramphus. 



The sub-family, SARCORAMPHiNiE, or Cathartin^ (Bonaparte) 

 are strictly American. They include two groups ; 1st, the King Vul- 

 ture (^Sarcoramphus Gryjjhus) and the celebrated Condor ( Sarcoram- 

 fhuspapa), the male of which has a fleshy caruncle over the nostrils ; 

 and 2nd, the Turkey Buzzards, so called. The former are birds of large 

 size, distinguished by the total want of tracheal muscles. Like the 



