VULTURE  , the name of certain birds whose best-known characteristic is that of feeding upon carcases . The genus Vultur, as instituted by

Linnaeus, is now restricted by ornithologists to a single species, V. monachus . The other species included therein by him, or thereto referred by succeeding systematists, being elsewhere relegated (see LAMMERGEYER) . A most important taxonomic change was introduced by T . H . Huxley (Prot . Zool . Society, 1867, pp . 462-64), who pointed out the complete structural difference between the vultures of the New World and those of the Old, regarding the former as constituting a distinct family, Cathartidae (which, however, would be more properly named Sarcorhamphidae), while he united the latter with the ordinary diurnal birds of prey as Gypaetidae . The American vulture may be said to include four genera: (r) Sarcorhamphus, the gigantic condor, the male distinguished by a large fleshy comb and wattle; (2) Gypagus, the king-vulture, with its gaudily coloured head and nasal caruncle; King-Vulture (Gypagus papa) . (3) Catharista, containing the so-called turkey-buzzard with its allies; and (4) Pseudogryphus, the great Californian vulture —of very limited range on the western slopes of North America . Though all these birds are structurally different from the true vultures of the Old World, in habits the Vulturidae and Sarcorhamphidae are much alike .

The true vultures of the Old World, Vulturidae in the restricted sense, are generally divided into five or six genera, of which Neophron has been separated as forming a distinct subfamily, Neophroninae—its members, of comparatively small

size, differing both in structure and habit considerably from the rest . One of them is the so-called Egyptian vulture or Pharaoh's hen, N. percnopterus, a remarkably foul-feeding species, living much on ordure . It is a well-known species in some parts of India,' and thence westward to Africa, where In the eastern part of the Indian peninsula it is replaced by a smaller race or (according to some authorities) species, N. ginginianus, which has a yellow instead of a black bill . it has an extensive range . It also occurs on the northern shores of the Mediterranean, and has strayed to such a distance as to have suffered capture in England and even in Norway . Of the genera composing the other subfamily, Vulturinae, Gyps numbers seven or eight local species and races, on more than one of which the English name griffon has been fastened . The best known is G. fulvus, which by some authors is accounted British " from an example having been taken in Ireland, though under circumstances which suggest its appearance so tar from its nearest home in Spain to be due to man's intervention . The species, however, has a wider distribution on the European continent (especially towards the north-east) than the Egyptian vulture, and in Africa nearly reaches the Equator, extending also in Asia to the Himalaya; but both in the Ethiopian and Indian regions its range inosculates with that of several allied forms or species . Pseudogyps with two forms—one Indian, the other African—differs from Gyps by having 12 instead of 14 rectrices . Of the genera Otogyps and Lophogyps nothing here need be said; and then we have Vultur, with, as mentioned before, its sole representative, V. monaclzus, commonly known as the cinereous vulture, a bird which is found from the Straits of Gibraltar to the sea-coast of China . Almost all these birds inhabit rocky cliffs, on the ledges of which they build their nests . The question whether vultures in their search for food are guided by sight of the object or by its scent has excited much interest .

It seems to be now generally admitted that the sense of sight is in almost every

case sufficient to account for the observed facts . (A .