Indian Ornithology - S R Tickell - volumes in ZSL (published 1866-1872)
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Vultur monachus (Lin)
Synonyms V. cinereus? (Gmel) V. arrianus? (Tem) Aegypius niger (Savigny) Polypteryx cupido (H__) "The Eagle Vulture" - "Great brown vulture" (apud Jerdon Vol 1. p. 6) Vautour chicou Tem: pl 13 Latham V. monachus, Edwards f 290. & LeVaillant pl. 12 are young birds Temminck apparently confounds with this bird V. occipitalis (Burchell) from Africa, which has the head, occipital crest, and belly white.
Dimensions. Of a female (apud Jerdon) Length 44 to 48" spread 7.5 to 8 feet. Wing 31 to 33" Tail 13 to 14" - Bill from tip to forehad 3.25" and to gape 4" Tarsus 4.5" middle toe 4" It's clas 1" The male is about 1/9th smaller.
Details. Typical (see genus) feathers of the nape lengthened and lanceolate, forming a thick ruff at bottom. Low chees and throat, and at foreneck clothed with hairy feathers. Top of head with downy feathers terminating in an occipital ruff or blunt crest of the same. The hind neck below the ear nude.
Color. Iris brown. Bill and cere reddish horny blackening at the tip former. Nude part of neck brownish red. Legs yellowish parchment color. Claws dark. The entire plumage dark brown: almost black on wings, tail and under parts.
In some the secondaries are iron grey. The insertion of the neck in front masked by a band of thick short white feathers and white thighs and tarsials. Vent and under tail coverts white. Cere bluish (Tem:)
The young have the head and neck covered with down. The legs ash colored and all the feathers margined pale, with whitish and tawny feathers intermixed.
I have had very few opportunies of observing this great vulture. It is not rare in the valley of Kathmandoo, and in
[page 2] [Plate showing Vultur monachus] banquet.
In Temminck's planches coloriees no 426 is named Vultur imperialis, a species as alleged of India, but which I am unable to identify. I insert a diagram of its head, and an abstract of the description of the bird. The head is more nude than that of V. monachus, there being only a hirsute patch on the rictus, and some bristles about the chin, lorum, and ear. A few recurved feathers at the bottom of the nape, and a transverse fold made of skin in place of the occipital tuft of monachus. It is described as the size of V. cinereus (Slightly larger than monachus). The bottom of the neck thickly clothed with ___ded brown and white feathers. Back whitish, scattered over with brown feathers. Scapulars, wings, tail and front of lower neck dark brown. Feathers of the lower parts narrow lanceolate, brown with the white ___ of the skin showing here and there. Thighs covered with brown down. Legs yellowish, cere bluish, bill yellowish, iris red brown. The total length 3 feet. From Bengal (?)
The text adds that Le Chincou of LeVaillant, & Vultur monachus of Edwards (tab 290) is probably the young; but the bird itself is, by the description, evidently young, and is by Jerdon supposed to be hte young of Otogyps calvus: but this appears to me very unlikely for it has no lappets of skin on the sides of the neck as the last named bird has, and on the other hand an occipital welt of skin which Otogyps calvus has not. I am inclined on the whole to consider it the young of V. monachus, if not of Gyps fulvus.
The Hon T.L.Powys mentions (Ibis vol 2. p.2) meeting with this species near Butrinto, near Corfu (Ionian islands) in the winter of 1857. It was feeding on the remains of a horse, It is said to be common in Sardinia.
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Genus Otogyps Gray
Tarus more lengthened than in Vultur. Body bulky with rounded back. Plumage ordinary. Head and neck bare a flap or wattle of skin along each side of neck. Bill rather shorter than in Vultur, thick and strong. Head broader and flat.
Bonaparte does not separate this genus from Vultur but I must consider the absence of ruff,* and of any feathers or setae from the head and neck, the addition of the flap of skin to the neck, the rounded, ordinary, (& not lanceolae) plumage, and the form & demeanour of the bird, constitute a very marked difference between the two.
- or rather of the ruff of hackles, characteristic of Vultur, & more especially of Gyps.
Indian species recorded 1. calvus
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Otogyps calvus (Scopoli)
Synonyms: Vultur calvus (Scop - Blyth - Horsf. cat 2 - V. ponticerianus (Daudin-Tem. pl col 2 - Sykes cat 2 - Jerdon cat 3. Gray & Hard. Ill Ind Zool pl. 15. f 2)
" Rung gidh" & "Moola gidh" & Bhaonra (Hind.) Lal mata Shucknee (Beng) Raj sogon or Raj gidh at Bhagalpur. [?]Gilla boaoa (telogoo) Rannapanta of the Yerklees (apud Jerdon) Black vulutre, King vulture of the English in India.
Dimensions (apud Jerdon) Length 32 to 36 inches. Wing 24. Tail 10. Bill (to gape) 3 by 1½ in depth. Tarsus 4 in toe 4½
Structure (see genus)
Color. (m & f.) Iris red brown, yellow in some individuals. Bill Dark horn. Cere, naked head and neck deep yellowish red, sometimes spotted with black. Legs dull red. Entire plumage brownish black, brownest on scaps. and 2daries[secondaries] Neck in front with some short brown feathers partially covering the crop. Between this and the dark under parts a zone or gorget of white.
young. Dull brown throughout.
The above description in chiefly from Jerdon. My own notes of a fine specimen killed sometime in 1835 or 36 were lost, and as the bird is so common throughout India I deferred examining another from time to time until the opportunity passed away. It is met with on both sides of the Ganges, throughout central India and the Madras presidency & is equally common in Burma and Arracan, though nowhere met with in such numbers as the ordinary species Gyps indicus, & Bengalensis. The King Vulture is generally seen in pairs, or solitary. It occassionally but rarely, joins with others soaring in circles. Where attracted to carrion, it gorges itself first, driving off the common kinds which watch around till the "Raj gidh" is sated. It seems to prefer open fields or meadows, and one or two may generally be seen early of a morning, on the parade ground of most
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cantonments in central India and Bengal. I have never seen the nest or eggs. It builds on rocks or large trees, laying a single egg, of a white color.
Captain Irby in his "notes on birds observed in Oudh and Kumaon" (Ibis Vol III p 224) says of this bird. "found throughout the year, and breeds on tall trees at the end of the cold season.- One egg obtained in February 1859, with rather rough on the surface white in color, with a few pale bluish spots on the larger end. This Vulture does not collect in flocks like Gyps indicus & bengalensis, seldom more than two or three being seen together: It was observed occasionally at Kumaon in May and June"
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genus Gyps [Savigny]
Size large. Bill longer than in vulture. Head and neck nude but clothed with soft down. The ruff composed of narrow hackles. Plumage lanceolate. Tail in two species, fulvous & Indicus, containing 14 rectrices.
Indian species recorded 3 viz 1 fulvous 2. indicus 3 bengalensis
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Gyps fulvus (Gmelin)
Synonyms> Vultur fulvus (Gmelin) (Gould. Birds of Europe pl 1. Blyth Cat 133. Horsf. Cat. 4) V. kolbi(Daudin)? V. persicus (Pallas) V. vulgaris and V. percnopterus (Daudin) V. albicollis (Lideron) V. trincalos (Bechstein) V. indicus (Jerdon cat.) "Maha deo" Marhattas - "Great tawny vulture" apud Jerdon
Dimensions. Length 4 feet. Wing 32 inches. Tail 15. Bill to gape 3¼ by 1¾ in depth. Tarsus 4½. Mid toe 5½.
Structure typical see genus. Rectrices 14. Nares transverse.
Color Iris brown. Bill dark horn. Legs dirty yellow Plu mage light tawny brown, lightest on rump and femorals. Greater coverts, scapulars, remiges and rectrical dark brown. Head with some hair like brown feathers. Neck above with whitish downy feathers, scanty on the lower part. The crop covered with brown short downy fethers. Ruff of redish brown hackles.
The description above is from Jerdon. I have no personal knowledge of the bird, tho. I have now and then seen them in Nepal flying over the valley of Kathmandoo & have examined the dried stuffed skins of several in Mr Hodgson's collection of the birds of that country. It is confined, in India, to the Himala, and in Europe frequents the Alps & Pyrenees, extending into northern Africa and Western Asia. Temminck assigns to it Turkey, the archipelago, Silesia, the Tyrol, Gibraltar, and all Africa. It builds on inaccessible rocks, laying a single egg, of a dull white marked with with reddish spots.
Great confusion exists as regards the distinctions of this bird from V. kolbii(latham) Le Vautour Chasse fianto of Le Vaillant which Temminck asserts is only the young of fulvus. In this he is followed by Smith, Gray & Legrand but Mr Alfred Malherbe in his Faune Ornithologique de la Sicilie p. 20 refers to the two as "perfectly distinct" In this opinion he appears to stand alone: altho Dr Schlegel considers the Chasse fiente as a permanent variety of G. fulvus and terms it Vautour fulvous occidentales.
see Supplement.
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Gyps indicus painting [break] genus Vultur (Lin in part)
Synonyms Aegypius (Savigny) Polypteryx (Hodgson)
Size large. Head and neck partially nude, partially clothed with downy feathers. Plumage full and coarse. long and lanceolate at axsertion of neck. Crop prominent and closely feathered. Bill slightly sinouus at tomiae. Nostrils oval and exposed. Tarsus feathered for some way below knee. Claws strong and tolerably sharp. The hackled feathers at bottom of neck are produced along the nape towards the occiput, where they end in a transverse band of down.
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