AVES. 95 



two together. Its black plumage distinguishes it at a glance from the 

 other species, with which it frequently consorts. Its range extends from 

 Portugal and Spain through Sicily, Greece, the whole of North Africa, 

 the Caucasus, Himalayas, North-west India; and it has been found in 

 China. 



190. Gyps fuhus. (Gmel. Syst. Nat. i., p. 249.) The Griffon 

 Vulture. Hebr. "V}. A. V. ' Eagle.' Arab. ^, Nissv. 



There can be no doubt of the identity of the bird called ' N'es/icr' 

 by the Hebrews with the Arabic ' N'issr,' the Griffon Vulture, though 

 rendered ' Eagle ' by our translators. Not only is this evident philologi- 

 cally, but the expression in Micah (i. 16), ' Enlarge thy baldness as 

 the eagle ' [N'esher), can only apply to the Griffon. It is unfortunate that 

 our language has only the one word ' Vulture ' for the noble Griffon, and 

 for the despicable, though very useful scavenger, ' Pharaoh's hen,' as 

 Europeans in the East call the Egyptian Vulture. 



The Griffon is employed by Orientals as the type of the lordly and 

 noble. Nisroch, the Eagle-headed god of the Assyrian sculptures, was 

 the deification of the N'issr, the standard of the Assyrian and Persian 

 armies. ' Calling a ravenous bird from the East,' i.e., Cyrus. From 

 Assyria and Persia the Romans probably borrowed the ensign which has 

 been adopted by so many modern nations, with more appropriateness of 

 character than its bearers would be willing to acknowledge. 



The Griffon is the most striking ornithological feature of Palestine. 

 It is impossible in any part of the country to look up without seeing some 

 of them majestically soaring at an immense height, and their eyries 

 abound in great colonies in all the ravines of the country. The most 

 notable colonies of eyries, some of them containing over one hundred pair 

 of birds, are in the Wady Kelt, near Jericho, the ravines of the Jabbok, 

 Callirrhoe, and Arnon, the gorge of the Litany river, some ravines near 

 Carmel, and, the most numerous of all, the great ' Griffonries ' in the 

 Wady Hamam and the Wady Leimun, opening on the plain of Genne- 

 saret. There toward evening every jagged rock in the cliffs is the perch 

 of one or more of these noble birds. Many of the characteristics and 

 habits of the Eagle {i.e., Griffon) are alluded to in Scripture. Its soarino-, 

 ' They shall mount up with wings as eagles ' (Isaiah xl. 31). Its swiftness, 



