ACC1PITRES. 



VULTURID.E. 



VULTURINiE. 



Genus NEOPHRON. 



Differs from the other genera of its family in having the bill long and slender, and the tip 

 much curved ; in the cere being more than half the length of the bill, with the nostrils placed 

 horizontally in it; the head is bare only to the occiput; the wings much pointed, the 3rd quill 

 being the longest, the tail wedge-shaped, and the membranes uniting the toes ample. 



NEOPHRON GINGINIANUS. 



(THE LESSER SCAVENGKR-VULTURE.) 



VuUwr ginginianus, Lath. Ind. Orn. i. p. 7 (1790); Daud. Traite, ii p. 20 (1800). 

 Neophron percnopterus, Blyth, Ann. Nat. Hist. 1844, xiii. p. 115; Jerdon, B. of Ind. i. 



p. 12; id. Ibis, 1871, p. 236. 

 Neophron ginginianus, Gray, Hand-1. of B. i. p. 4 ; Hume, Bough Notes on Indian Baptores. 



i. p. 31 ; id. Nests and Eggs (Bough Draft), i. p. 9 ; Sharpe, Cat. Birds, i. p. 18 ; Legge, 



Str. Feath. 1876, p. 195 (first record from Ceylon); Hume, Str. Feath. i. p. 150. 

 Gingi Vulture of Latham ; White Scavenger-Vulture, Jerdon, Birds of India. 

 •'Pharaohs Chicken" "Pharaohs lien," " Dirt-bird," popularly in India and Egypt. 

 Kal-Murgh, Hind. Shikarees; Manju-Tiridi, Tarn., lit. '■ Turmeric-stealer," also Pittri-gedda, 



lit. " Dung-Kite." 



Adult male, and female. Length to front of cere 21*0 to 23-5 inches ; culrnen from cere L'35 ; wing 18 to 19, reaching 

 to tip of tail ; tail 8-5 to 10-5 ; tarsus 3 ; mid toe 2-4 to 2-5, its claw (straight) 085 : bill, gape to tip, 2-4. 



Iris brown ; naked skin of the head, face, and throat yellow ; cere yellow, bill yellowish horny ; legs and feet fleshy 

 yellow. 



Above, the neck, back, scapulars, wing-coverts, including the lesser primary-coverts, tail, entire under surface with the 

 under wing-coverts white ; primaries and winglet green-black, the outer webs of the long quills, from the notch 

 to the base, and the entire web of the shorter quills pervaded with greyish ; secondaries dusky greenish black, the 

 outer webs towards the tips silvery whitish : tertials brown, changing into whitish towards the tips. 



Young. Birds of the year have the head partly clothed with short rudimentary feathers ; a broad blackish stripe passes 

 from the forehead over the centre of the crown, and spreads out on the occiput ; the lores are divided by a narrow 

 blackish stripe, running forward to the cere : upper surface blackish brown, deepest on the back and sides of the 

 neck aud the chest, and paling into dark brown on the scapulars and wing-coverts : feathers of the back, scapulars, 

 and wiug-coverts more or less broadly tipped with fulvous; upper tail-coverts fulvous brown; tail pale brown. 

 tipped with fulvous grey ; quills black, as in the adult, but the outer webs washed with brownish grey at the tip ; 



