^8 rOLVOUS VULTURE. 



trude when the bird is full-fed: the legs and feet 

 are ash-coloured. 



The figure of this bird in the Memoirs of the 

 French Academy represents it with a very slight 

 occipital tuft or elongation of the down on the 

 back part of the head. That given at plate 4 of 

 Willughby's Ornithology^ under the name of The 

 Vulture, though by no means elegant, is yet suf- 

 ficiently expressive of the general appearance of 

 the bird. In the wretched publication of Albin 

 there is also a figure of this species; but there 

 seems to be a mistake in the colouring; the rulF 

 being represented of the same colour with the 

 plumage of the body*. It must be confessed that a 

 high degree of confusion seems to take place, even 

 among the latest and best ornithologists, relative 

 to the species of Vultures; and very little de- 

 pendance can, perhaps, be placed on the specific 

 characters usually given ; while the figures in va- 

 rious works, being occasionally misquoted and 

 misapplied, have tended- to increase the embar- 

 rassment. There can be little doubt that the 

 present and the following species in particular are 

 often confounded; neither indeed is the real dif- 

 ference sufficiently striking in any other respect 

 than colour, to admit of a very correct specific 

 character. 



* Perhaps the bird may gometimes vary in this particular. 



