Page:The birds of America, volume 1.djvu/19

BIRDS OF AMERICA. FAMILY I. VULTURIN^E. VULTURINE BIRDS, or VULTURES. Bill of moderate length, stout, cerate; upper mandible with the tip elon- gated and decurved; lower mandible rounded and thin-edged at the end. Head rather small, or of moderate size, ovato-oblong, and with part of the neck destitute of feathers. Eyes of moderate size, without projecting ridges. External aperture of ears rather small and simple. Skin over the fore part of the neck bare, or merely downy. Tarsus rather stout, bare, and shorter than the middle toe; hind toe much smaller than the second; anterior toes connected at the base by a web; claws large, moderately curved, rather acute. Plumage full and rather compact. Wings very long, subacuminate. (Eso- phagus excessively wide, and dilated into a crop; stomach rather large, somewhat muscular, with a soft rugous epithelium; intestine of moderate length and width; coeca extremely small. The young when fledged have the head and upper part of the neck generally covered with down. Eggs commonly two. Genus I.— CATHARTES, Illiger. TURKEY-VULTURE. Bill of moderate length, rather slender, somewhat compressed; upper mandible with its dorsal outline nearly straight and declinate to the end of the large cere, then decurved, the edges a little festooned, rather thick, the tip descending and rather obtuse; lower mandible with the angle long and rather narrow, the dorsal line ascending and slightly convex, the back broad,