TURKEY VULTURE. 
9 
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 anterior angle of the nostril, the neck not 
so much caruncled as that of the black vulture ; fisom 
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 wing's, 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 ; primaries 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 wings 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, w r hich 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 longer 
than the outer one, which is the next longest ; the sole 
Of the foot is hard and rough ; claws dark horn colour ; 
the legs are of a pale flesh colour, and three inches long. 
The claws are larger, but the feet slenderer than those 
of the carrion crow. The bill of the male is pure white ; 
in some specimens the upper mandible is tipt with black. 
