VULTUEID^ OTOGYPS 389 



Genus III. OTOGYPS. 



Type. 

 Otogyps, Gray, List Genera Bds. p. 2 (1841) G. auricularis. 



Bill short but deep and strongly hooked ; nostrils a vertical oval 

 wider than in Gyps ; head and neck bare in the adults ; along the 

 neck from below the ear runs a bare wattle of skin of varying 

 development ; tail-feathers twelve in number ; tarsus longer than 

 the middle toe without claw, the upper half covered with down. 



This genus, consisting of two species, is spread over southern 

 Europe and Africa extending eastwards to India and Cochin China. 

 One species is found within our limits. 



558. Otogyps auricularis. Black Vulture. 



L'Oricou, Levaillant, Ois. d'Afr. i, p. 36, pi. 9 (1799). 



Vultur auricularis, Baud. Traite, ii, p. 10 (1800) ; Burchell, Travels, i, 



pp. 377, 501 (1822) [Griquatown] ; Smith, 8. A. Quart. Jourii. i, 



p. 13 (1829) ; Gurney, Descrij^t. Oat. Bapt. B. p. 57 (1861) ; Ayres, 



Ibis, 1869, p. 287 [Orange Eiver Colony]. 

 Otogyps auricularis, Gurney, Ibis, 1859, p. 235 [NatalJ ; id. Andersson's 



B. Damaraland, p. 2 (1872) ; Sharpe, Cat. B. M. i, p. 13 (1874) ; id. 



ed. Layard's B. S. Afr. pp. 4, 793 (1875-84) ; Barratt, Ibis, 1876, 



p. 194 ; Gates, Mataheleland, p. 297 (1881) ; Holub Sj- Pelzelxi, 



Orn. Sild-Afrikas, p. 11 (1882) ; Butler, Feilden, and Beid, Zool. 



1882, p. 167 ; Shelley, B. Afr. i, p. 154 (1896) ; Woodward Bros. 



Natal B. p. 137 (1899) ; Marshall, Ibis, 1900, p. 255 [Mashonaland] ; 



Beichenow, Vdg. Afr. i, p. 512 (1901). 

 " Zwarte Aasvogel " of Dutch. 



Description. Adult. — Head and neck with no down but with a 

 few bristles, most abundant on the chin where they are black; 

 above the eye a row of large black eyelashes and round the ear 

 opening a few bristles ; a narrow fold of skin about a quarter of an 

 inch wide and about four inches long runs from in front of the ear 

 down the neck and forms a kind of lappet; this structure varies 

 a good deal in development and has often disappeared in stuffed 

 specimens; round the hinder part of the lower neck a ruff of 

 brown feathers not meeting in front but extending slightly up the 

 back of the neck ; general colour above brown, becoming quite black 

 on the wings and tail, scapulars and wing-coverts edged with paler ; 

 crop patch dark brown ; lower surface including the thighs thickly 

 clothed with white down, through which project on the breast and 

 abdomen narrow lanceolate feathers of dark brown edged with 

 paler; feathers of the underwing- and tail-coverts brown more 

 rounded in shape. 



