258 BIRDS OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE. 



Egyptian Vulture. — This bird is also found in many 

 parts of Southern Europe. The general colour of the 

 adult is white, but the quills of the wings, or primaries, are 

 dark brown ; the bare face, the bill, and the legs are 

 yellow. Both sexes are alike in appearance. The young 

 are of a chocolate brown shade, and do not assume the full 

 adult plumage until they are three years old. 



They are generally protected by law in all the places 

 they frequent, and justly so, for they make excellent 

 scavengers, that do not require either backsheesh or wages. 



The next family on the list is rather an artificially 

 formed one, and consists of one genus only, and one species. 



THE SECRETARY VULTURE. 



Family — Serpentariida;. 



Genus — Serpeniariiis. S. reptilivorus. 



Secretary Vulture. — The first name is derived from a 

 tuft of long feathers that projects from the ear coverts to 

 the back of the neck in a horizontal direction, like a pen 

 stuck behind a clerk's ear ; and the second from the vul- 

 turine appearance of the head and beak. 



The general colour is bluish grey, but the crest feathers 

 are black, as are those of the thighs and the primaries ; the 

 tail has a white tip. 



A good deal of nonsense has been written about this 

 bird's mode of killing the reptiles on which it chiefly feeds, 

 it does not strike them with its wings, but tramples them 

 with its strong feet, which, owing to the length of the 

 shank, it can bring down on its victim with the force of a 

 sledge-hammer, breaking the reptile's back at once ; but the 

 blows are repeated again and again until the last vestige of 

 life is stamped out of the victim. The wings are kept 



