VULTURID^ GYPS 383 



Key of the Genera. 



A. Bill stout. 



a. Nostrils a narrow vertical slit. 



a' . Tail-feathers fourteen in number Qyps, p. 383. 



6' . Tail-feathers twelve in number Pseudogyps, p. 388. 



b. Nostrils round or oval. 



a.'. A fleshy wattle on either side of the neck ; 



crown naked Otogyps, p. 389. 



6'. No wattle, crown covered with a thick cushion 



of down Lophogyps, p. 391. 



B. Bill slender and elongated ; nostrils horizontal. 



a. Plumage white, fourteen tail-feathers Neophron, -p. 398. 



h. Plumage brown , twelve tail-feathers Necrosyrtes, p. 396. 



Genus I. GYPS. 



Type. 

 Gyps, Savigny, Syst. Ois. d'Egypte, p. 231 (1809) G. fulvus. 



Bill short and stout, its length along the culmen without the 

 cere being about twice its breadth at the nostrils ; the nostrils 

 narrow almost perpendicular slits along the outer edge of the cere ; 

 head and neck bare or covered only by down or hairs ; wings long 

 reaching beyond the tail ; fourteen tail-feathers ; tarsus short, about 

 equal to the middle toe, partially clothed with feathers. 



The seven generally recognised species of this genus are spread 

 over southern Europe, central and southern Asia as far as the 

 Malay Peninsula and Africa ; two species only enter our limits. 



Key to the Species. 



A. Feathers of the lower back and rump with a paler 



shaft stripe G. kolbii, p. 388. 



B. Feathers of the lower back and rump brown with 



fulvous tips ff. rueppelU, Tp. S86. 



555. Gyps kolbii. Kolbe's Vulture. 



Le Chasse-fiente, Levwill. Ois. d'Afr. i, p. 44, pi. 10 (1799). 



Vultur kolbii, Dcmd. Trcdte ii, p. 15 (1800). 



Vultur fulvus (nee Omel.) Smith, S. A. Quart. Journ. i, p. 11 (1830). 



Gyps fulvus, Ov/rney, Ibis, 1859, p. 236 [Natal]; id. Descript. Cat. 



Bapt. B., p. 69 (1861) ; Layard, B. 8. Afr. p. 6 (1867) ; Gumey, 



Ibis, 1868, p. 463 ; La/yard, Ibis, 1869, p. 68 [Nesting at Nelspoort] ; 



Ayrea, ibid. p. 286 [Limpopo] ; Oakley, Trans. Phil. Sac. ii, p. 46 



(1881). 



