Fam. III. VULTURIDAE.–The Old-World Vultures have a strong hooked bill–exceptionally slender in _Neophron_–which may be sinuate, but has no tooth. They possess a horny cere; a comparatively short, stout, reticulated metatarsus, often partly feathered; scutellated toes on a level, with bluntish slightly curved claws, and a short membrane between the outer and mid digits. They lack the bony ridge found over the eye in the Falconidae. The somewhat pointed wings are long and broad, with eleven primaries and from seventeen to twenty-five secondaries; the moderate tail, ordinarily of twelve feathers, is rounded, but varies to wedge-shaped in _Neophron_, where, as in _Gyps_, there are fourteen rectrices. The plumage is compact; the crop prominent; the head and neck are bare or sparsely-haired in _Otogyps_ and _Pseudogyps_, more or less downy in _Vultur_, _Lophogyps_, and _Gyps_, and partly feathered in _Neophron_; while a ruff of down or plumes covers the shoulders. The nostrils are circular in _Vultur_, horizontally elongated in _Neophron_, oval and vertical elsewhere; the fleshy tongue may show bristly or upcurved margins, and the syrinx has two pairs of tracheo-bronchial muscles. Uniformly distributed down and an aftershaft characterize the adults, while the white woolly nestling of _Gyps_ is said to be hatched naked.[128] Except as regards _Neophron_, the habits resemble those of the Cathartidae, the carrion diet producing a most offensive odour. The plumage of the sexes is the same.