SIX months' bird collecting in EGYPT. 1 29 



3. Griffon Vulture, Gyps fnlvus (Gmel.). 



This again is another splendid Vulture, which is con- 

 sidered to be resident ; a common bird, and generally 

 distributed, barring the Delta, where we did not see any. 

 Those who are only acquainted with northern Europe can 

 form no conception of how big Vultures look when their 

 wings are spread, or what a grand spectacle a score or so 

 present sailing on motionless pinions in the neighbourhood 

 of their eyrie, which is generally on some steep mountain 

 side. There was a place of the kind opposite Minieh, where 

 some two score had located themselves on the ledges of the 

 steep cliff on the east bank. They were too far for our 

 guns, and they knew it, though I could have got them if I 

 had used a poisoned sheep. I never had the luck to catch 

 one gorged — an event which surely cannot be so common 

 as some authors would have us believe ; but at Girgeh a 

 brace of them were inspecting the carcase of the very largest 

 fish I ever saw, and I fancy they meant to have a good 

 " tuck in " when we were gone. I never myself met with 

 any recognition of the name Nissr, by which this species is 

 known among the Arabs in some countries. 



4. Egyptian Vulture, Neophron percnoptems (Linn.). 

 (Hasselquist, 14) ; " Rackham."* 



These are unsavoury birds, but useful as scavengers. 

 That is their foul office, and where there is any offal there 

 they congregate. The lists I have consulted do not say 

 they are less common in Lower Egypt than in Upper, yet 

 we only saw one or two north of Cairo. In that city of 

 picturesque dirt and eastern filthiness they were common 

 enough, and it was the only place where old and young 



'' The Arabic names are given in inverted commas. 



K 



