AVES. 
287 
EAPTOEES. 
VULTUE, Linn. 
I have referred provisionally to this genus a rapacious Bird, in size 
intermediate between the Turkey Vulture {CatJiartes aura) and the Golden 
Eagle {Aquila cJirysaetos). The beak is compressed, and the culmen, con¬ 
vex in the transverse direction, descends obliquely from above the middle 
of the tomia to the apex. The nareal openings are large, and are 
directed obliquely downward and forward, and are bounded within by a 
septum, which does not extend behind their posterior borders. They are 
bounded below and behind by a prominent flaring border. The symphy¬ 
sis of the lower jaw is straight, quite elongate, and regularly rounded in 
transverse section. The bones of the hind legs are less robust than those 
division of the Falconidce, but resemble in their robustness the true Vul¬ 
tures. The digits of the foot are more slender than those of the Aquila 
chrysaetos : those of the external and middle digits are of the same length 
as in that species, while the inner free metatarsus is smaller in all dimen¬ 
sions. 
Vultur umbrosus, Cope. 
Plates Ixvii, figs. 10-18, and Ixviii. 
Vxdiur umbrosus, Cope, Proc. Acad. Phila., 1875, p. 271; Ann. Eept. Chief of Engineers, 
1875, ii, 993. 
Cathartes umbrosus, Cope, Proc. Phila. Acad., 1874, p. 151; Ann. Eept. Chief of 
Engineers, 1874, 606. 
The superior portion of the beak is contracted in line with the anterior 
border of the nares, showing the anterior limit of the cere. The surface 
anterior to this is marked with ramifying grooves for nutritive arteries. 
Between the nares, the superior face is but slightly convex. The nareal 
openings are large. The tomia of the beak are convex downward and back¬ 
ward from the anterior portion, which is in line with the inferior border of the 
nares. The posterior end of the mandibular symphysis is below a point which 
measures three-fifths the length from the apex of the beak to the anterior 
border of the nares. The apex of both jaws is broken off. As compared 
