28 VULTURE. 



The female differs in having the long feathers at the back of the 

 head shorter than in the male, and the skin of the head more smooth. 



This bird is not uncommon in various parts of India, on the 

 coast of Coromandel, where it is called the wild turkey; is pro- 

 bably that mentioned, in Essais philosophiques, to be almost white ; 

 the head and neck covered with fine short bristly feathers ; with long 

 quills, towards the end blackish grey; this is found to fly quick and 

 light; to be very voracious and timid; generally found singly on some 

 hillock in the marshes, where it feeds chiefly on carrion, but prefers 

 reptiles. 



In the last named work* another is mentioned of the same size; the 

 male marbled brown; female iron grey; head and half the neck 

 naked ; wrinkled, and covered with reddish yellow excrescences, with 

 scattered hair between; said to be often met with in flocks of twenty 

 or thirty, eating the flesh of a dead beast. 



Among the drawings, both of Sir J. Anstruther and Lord Va- 

 lentia, are figures of a white one, corresponding with the above 

 description, and is named Gid; a second, with the same appellation, 

 as well as make and shape, with the plumage of reddish brown and 

 grey in various shades; tail feathers pale at the ends; quills black; 

 the feathers about the head and neck naiTow and elongated, as in the 

 white one ; the bare space on the fore part of the head bluish dusky 

 white; legs pale brown. 



From the names of botli the white and the brown being alike, Gid, 

 vv^e may fairly suppose them to be one species, differing only in sex or 

 age, except that word may signify a name for Vultures in general. 



One answering to the latter description, according to a drawing- 

 made by Mr. Salt, is also found in Abyssinia. 



Both these are among the drawings of Gen. Hardwicke; the 

 brown one has the brown feathers more or less pale down the shaft, 

 but on the breast and belly they enlarge into spots ; on the back and 



* Ess. Philo*. p. 58. 



