THE LONG-BILLED VULTUEE. 
169 
Order VII. ACCIPITEES. 
Suborder FALCONE S. 
Family VULTURID^. 
Genus GYPS, Savigny, 
548. GYPS INDICUS. 
THE LONG-BILLED VULTUEE. 
Vultur indicus, Scops, Del. Faun, et Flor. Insub. ii. p. 85. Gyps indicus, Jerd. 
B. Ind. i. p. 9 j Hume, Rough Notes, i. p. 21 ; id. Nests and Eggs, p. 5 ; id. 8. F. 
iii. p. 18 Sharpe, Cat. Birds B. Mus. i. p. 10; Bl. B. Burm. p. 64; Hume 4' 
Bav. S. F. vi. p. 1 ; Hume, S. F. vii. p. 165, viii. p. 81 ; Oates, S. F. x. p. 177. 
Description. — Male and female. The head bare^ with a few hair-like 
feathers ; upper part of the neck thinly covered with down ; the lower 
part naked ; upper back_, scapulars and wing-coverts dull brown ; lower 
back^ rump and upper tail-coverts dull white ; wings and tail blackish 
brown ; ruff white'; crop covered with dark brown feathers ; lower plumage 
whity brown to tawny. 
Bill and cere bluish horny, dusky at tip ; legs and feet dusky cinereous ; 
irides brown. (Jerdon.) 
Length 38 inches, tail 10'5_, wing 24, tarsus 4*5, bill from gape 3. The 
female is of about the same size. 
The Long-billed Vulture appears to be generally distributed over the 
Province, at least as far south as Moulmein, but it is by no means plentiful. 
I have never myself shot a specimen of this Vulture ; but I have often 
observed a species which differed from the very common P. bengalensiSj 
and which was probably the present bird. Capt. Bingham observed it at 
Moulmein, and thinks the two species equally common. Mr. Hume states 
that he has seen a specimen that was killed in Upper Pegu. 
It extends north into India, and is spread over a considerable portion of 
that peninsula, and it is stated to have occurred in Siam and at Malacca. 
Dr. Tiraud met with it in Cochin China. 
This species is found in large flocks feeding on carrion ; and it breeds on 
trees, laying but one egg, which is sometimes spotless greenish white, and 
at other times marked with reddish brown. The Western and Central 
Indian representative of this species (G. pallescens) appears always to 
breed on the ledges of cliffs. 
