381 



Genus VULTUR. 



Vultur, Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. i. p. 122 (1766). 

 JEgypius apud Savigny, Syst. Ois. de l'Egypte, p. 74 (1810). 

 Gyps apud Bonaparte, Comp. List, p. 2 (1838). 

 Polypteryx apud Blyth, Ann. Nat. Hist. xiii. p. 115 (1844). 



This genus contains only a single species, Vultur monachus, which inhabits the Mediterranean 

 subregion and ranges eastward to India and China. 



In habits it resembles the Griffon, but evinces a partiality for wooded districts, whereas 

 Gyps fulvus affects the open country and rocky regions. Like that species it feeds on carrion ; 

 and the two frequently meet on the same carcass. It nests, however, on trees, and never, so far 

 as I am aware, in cliffs, and builds a bulky nest of boughs lined with twigs and wool, in which 

 it deposits a single large white egg, more or less richly marked with red. 



Vultur monachus, the type of the genus, has the bill strong, stout, deep, the line of the 

 culmen rising slightly from the cere, and then decurved towards the tip, which is hooked . 

 nostrils exposed, roundish ; head and upper neck clothed with short down, the lower neck 

 encircled by a ruff of pointed downy feathers ; wings long and broad, the secondaries in the 

 closed wing nearly as long as the primaries ; tail moderate, rounded ; feet strong ; the tarsus 

 reticulated, slightly feathered above; the middle and outer toes united at the base by a 

 membrane; claws moderate, slightly curved. 



109 



