234 
TURKEY VULTURE. 
feet two inches in breadth ; the bill from the corner of the 
mouth is almost two inches and a half long, of a dark horn 
colour for somewhat more than an inch from the tip, the nostril 
a remarkably wide slit, or opening through it ; the tongue is 
greatly concave, cartilaginous, and finely serrated on its edges ; 
ears inclining to oval ; eyes dark, in some specimens reddish 
hazel ; the head and neck, for about an inch and a half below 
the ears, are furnished with a reddish wrinkled skin, beset with 
short black hairs, which also cover the bill as far as the interior 
angle of the nostril, the neck not so much caruncled as that of 
the black vulture ; from the hind head to the neck feathers the 
space is covered with down of a sooty black colour ; the fore 
part of the neck is bare as far as the breast bone, the skin on 
the lower part, or pouch, very much wrinkled ; this naked 
skin is not discernible without removing the plumage which 
arches over it ; the whole lower parts, lining of the wings, 
rump, and tail-coverts, are of a sooty brown, the feathers of 
the belly and vent hairy ; the plumage of the neck is large and 
tumid, and, with that of the back and shoulders, black ; the 
scapulars and secondaries are black on their outer webs, skirted 
with tawny brown, the latter slightly tipped with white ; pri- 
maries and their coverts, plain brown, the former pointed, third 
primary the longest ; coverts of the secondaries, and lesser 
coverts, tawny brown, centred with black, some of the feathers 
at their extremities slightly edged with white ; the tail is twelve 
inches long, rounded, of a brownish black, and composed of 
twelve feathers, which are broad at their extremities ; inside of 
wungs and tail, light ash ; the wings reach to the end of the 
tail ; the whole body and neck beneath the plumage are thickly 
clothed with a white down, which feels like cotton ; the shafts 
of the primaries are yellowish white above, and those of the 
tail brown, both pure white below ; the plumage of the neck, 
back, shoulders, scapulars, and secondaries, is glossed with 
green and bronze, and has purple reflections ; the thighs are 
feathered to the knees ; feet considerably webbed; middle toe 
three inches and a half in length, and about an inch and a half 
