VULTURE, the name applied to a group of birds whose best-known characteristic is that of feeding on carrion. The American forms are quite distinct from the others and include the condor (q.v.), the Califor nian vulture (Gymnogyps Cali fornianus), the king vulture (Sar coramphus papa), with a gaudily coloured head, the turkey buz zard or turkey vulture (Cathartes aura), and the black buzzard, black vulture or carrion crow (Catharista urubu), the last two being familiar birds in southern U.S.A. They resemble the Euro pean vultures in habits.
The true vultures are confined to the Old World. The cinere ous vulture (Vultur monachus) inhabits the tropical and sub tropical zones from the Straits of Gibraltar to China. The Egyp
tian vulture or Pharaoh's hen (Neophron percnopterus), which ranges over most of Africa and thence to India, is a remark ably foul feeder. Numerous other species are known.
Vultures are guided to their food, not by scent, but by sight. When one circling bird sights a corpse and drops, others see it descend, and so in a few hours scores, or even hundreds, of birds will arrive. When gorged with food vultures are often unable to rise from the ground. In all the head and neck are bare of feathers.