388 VULTUEIDiE PSEUDOGTPS 



Genus II. PSEUDOGYPS. 



Type. 

 Pseudogyps, Sha/rpe, Ann. Mag. N. H. (4) xi, p. 133 



(1873) P. bengalensis. 



This genus resembles Gyps except for the fact that it has only 

 twelve instead of fourteen tail-feathers. Two species very similar 

 to one another are known, one from India and the Malay Peninsula, 

 the other from tropical Africa, which latter just enters our boundaries. 



557. Pseudogyps africanus. African White-backed Vulture. 



Gyps africanus, Salvad. Not. B. Accad. Torin. p. 133 (1865). 

 Pseudogyps africanus, Sharpe, Oat. B. M. i, p. 12 (1874) ; Socage, Orn. 



Angola, p. 1, pi. ix (1881) ; Sharpe, ed. Layard's B. 8. Afr. p. 794 



(1884) ; Shelley, B. Afr. i, p. 154 (1896). 



Description. Adult. — General colour deep brown, some of the 

 feathers of the back and wing-coverts blackish-brown ; lower back 

 and rump pure white ; upper tail-coverts brown, some inclining to 

 blackish ; quills and tail black, the latter with only twelve feathers, 

 the secondaries with an external ashy-grey shade ; ruff white, 

 rather scanty, crop patch brown ; rest of the under-surface a pale 

 brown with very narrow yellowish-white shaft lines. 



Iris umber-brown ; bill brownish-black ; the culmen yellowish ; 

 feet dusky plumbeous. 



Length 30-0 ; wing 22-0 ; tail 9-0 : culmen 3-2 ; tarsus 4-5. 



An immature female is fulvous-brown, the secondaries lighter 

 and more ashy ; quills and tail blaokish-brown, the former extern- 

 ally shaded with greyish ; below, brown, paler and more fulvescent 

 in the centre of the body, the feathers with pale fulvous-white 

 streaks very indistinct. 



Distribution. — Tropical Africa from Senegambia and Abyssinia 

 southwards to Angola and German east Africa. 



This Vulture hardly comes within our limits,* it has been 

 obtained, however, by Senor Anchieta at Humbe on the Cunene 

 river in southern Angola, and will probably be found in the northern 

 portions of German south-west Africa. 



* Gapt. Sparrow of the 7th Dragoon Guards has recently informed me that 

 he found this Vulture quite common near Potchefstroom. It breeds in the 

 middle of June, building a very large nest in big thorns and other trees and 

 laying one egg only. 



