8 
CONDOR. 
minor groups of Savigny. The three might indeed be considered 
as co-ordinate subgenera. 
As for the genus Cathartes, it is by no means so easy to divide, 
and the two groups or subgenera which we admit are perhaps 
artificial and blended too much together. The first, comprising 
the Condor, the Californian Condor, and the King Vulture, that 
is, the Stout-billed American Vultures, may be called Sarcoramphus, 
a name confined by Dumeril and Cuvier to those that have 
caruncles or fleshy appendages on the head, but to which Vieillot 
very justly added C. californianus , calling the group Gypagus. 
The second subgenus of Cathartes may be called Catharista, 
Vieillot, or the Slender-billed American Vultures, analogous in a 
parallel series, where the strength of the bill is considered, to the 
Percnopteri, but having no immediate affinity with them. The 
only known species are the two of Wilson’s work, Cathartes aura, 
and Cathartes iota of my Synopsis, the former of which is a link 
between its own group and the preceding. 
The best discriminating mark between the two principal genera 
of this family, one which is obvious and easily understood, is the 
striking character of the perviousness of the nostrils in Cathartes, 
through which light appears broadly from one side to the other, 
while in the Vultures they are separated by an internal cartila¬ 
ginous partition. This will make it at once evident that it was 
for want of proper examination that the Percnopterus, merely on 
account of its slender bill, w r as ever considered a Cathartes. 
The remaining characters being more of a relative than a positive 
kind, we shall not here notice them, except remarking that the 
hind toe being much shorter and set on higher up in the 
American genus, shows a greater affinity with the Gallinaceous 
birds, an affinity which may be traced in other features of their 
organization. The number of tail-feathers is fourteen in several 
species of Vultures, whilst no Cathartes has ever been found to 
