— VULTUR CINEREUS. 
283 
BIRDS OP PREY. 
we may advert to the fact, that not one half of the new 
world vultures have either caruncles or wattles. the 
pre-eminent distinction of these 
two groups appears to be in the 
verv opposite forms of their nos- 
trils. In Vultur, the aperture 
is placed transversely across the 
bill, wliile in Cathartes it is long, 
linear, and situated parallel with 
the margin of the hill ; in other 
words, the aperture is longitu- 
dinal. In the most aberrant 
species, there will, of course, he 
an interchange of characters, as 
in every other part of the animal 
kingdom. Of the typical vultures there are only two 
species found in Europe, — the V. fulvus and the V. «- 
nereus {Jig. 91.), the last of which we have occasionaUy 
found on the lofty mountains of Sicily. Neophron (Sa- 
vigny), iVarcorairepAtts (Dumeril), and some others, seem 
to be minor variations, or subgenera. Neophron is obvi- 
ously a tenuirostral type, for its lengthened and slender 
bill more resembles that of a wader than of a bird of prey ; 
while the Vultur aura of South America seems to us to bi' 
the type of CatMrtes. Both these great divisions have 
the head and neck more or less bare of feathers, while 
their feet and general aspect at once proclaim the typical 
characters of the family they represent. But there are 
some other birds, obviously allied to these, which cannot, 
however, be associated with them. One of these is the 
New Holland vulture, mentioned by my friend Chief 
Justice Field*, and which is so like a rasorial bird that 
some authors have hesitated (not having seen a specimen) 
as to what order it really belonged. So complete y, 
indeed, has nature disguised this rare and extraordinary 
vulture in the semblance of that type which it is to re- 
present in its own family, that it has even been classed 
by one writer with the Menura of the same continent ; 
* G6o. M^moires of New South Wales. 
