Ridgway on the American Vultures. 
83 
S. gryphus. 
P. californianus. 
C! aura. 
Humerus 
10.50 
10.75 
6.00 
Ulna and radius 
12.00 
12.50 
7.25 
Femur 
5.75 
5.25 
Tibia 
8.60 
8.75 
Tarsus 
4.75 
4.50 
Head 
5.90 
6.75 
Wing from carpal joint 
33.00 
35.00 
23.00 
Cathartes burrovianus, Cass. — Recent authorities * having 
almost uniformly ignored the claims of this bird to specific rank, I 
have, in the absence of any opportunity to examine the type 
specimen in the Museum of the Philadelphia Academy, carefully 
read Mr. Cassin’s original description in order to satisfy myself 
whether we are justified in the suspicion that Mr. Cassin’s supposed 
species was based on a small specimen of C. aura. Upon reading 
Mr. Cassin’s description I was surprised to find how well and un- 
mistakably it applied to the bird usually called “ C. urubitinga , 
Pelz.,” in every particular. In the description, as quoted below, I 
have italicized the phrases which are strictly and peculiarly diag- 
nostic of C. “ urubitinga ,” in order to show at a glance how certain 
it is that Cassin’s C. burrovianus is the same bird. The only ques- 
tion, it appears to me, can be as to the locality, which may be 
erroneous, since C. urubitinga is not known to occur anywhere out 
of Eastern South America, though the evidence to this effect, it 
should be remembered, is purely negative. 
The earliest notice of this species is that of Brisson (1760), the 
Vultur brasitiensis of - this author being unquestionably the same 
species, as his full and very accurate description clearly shows. 
Therefore it is quite possible that some author may have applied 
the name brasitiensis to the species under consideration before Mr. 
Cassin’s name burrovianus was bestowed upon it ; in which event 
the proper specific term would be brasitiensis, and not burrovianus. 
I cannot find, however, that such use of Brisson’s name has been 
made. It is altogether probable that burrovianus will stand. 
Mr. Cassin’s description (Pr. Philad. Acad., March, 1845, p. 212) 
is as follows : — 
“Head naked, smooth, with the nostrils large and oval ; plumage of the 
body entirely black, with a greenish-blue gloss, paler beneath ; the feathers 
* Conf. Elliot, Illustr. Am. B., II, 1866; Allen, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., 
II, 1871, p. 311 ; Sharpe, Cat. Acc. Brit. Mus., I, 1874, p. 28 ; Gurney, 
The Ibis, 1875, p. 94. 
