168 NEOPHRON PERCNOPTERUS. 



being found at the Cape of Good Hope, in Abyssinia, Egypt, 

 and Barbary. In Asia it is also very extensively dispersed, 

 having been met with in Arabia, India, and Persia, In Eu- 

 rope, it is abundant in Turkey, Spain, and Portugal, and occurs 

 in the south of France ; but beyond this to the northward its 

 appearance is accidental. It is said to live in pairs, and to 

 become temporarily gregarious only when attracted to a parti- 

 cular spot by the presence of food. Although it feeds chiefly 

 on carrion, oftal, and refuse, it attacks lizards, serpents, and 

 small quadrupeds. 



In October 1825, an individual was killed in Somersetshire, 

 and was obtained by the Rev. A. Mathew, of Kilve, in that 

 county, who lent it to Mr Selby, by whom it has been figured 

 and described in his Illustrations. " When first discovered, it 

 was feeding upon the carcase of a dead sheep, and had so gorged 

 itself with the carrion as to be unable or unwilling to fly to any 

 great distance at a time : it was therefore approached without 

 much difficulty and shot. Another bird, apparently of this spe- 

 cies, was seen in the neighbourhood a few days, but could never 

 be approached within gunshot : this was supposed to be the mate 

 of the one killed. It measured two feet seven inches in length, 

 and in extent of wing five feet nine inches. Its bill from the 

 forehead to the tip is two inches and a half long, the tarsus 

 three inches, and the middle toe with its claw the same. The 

 bill is brownish-black or horn-coloured. The cere, which is 

 somewhat bulging at the base, and occupies half the length of 

 the bill, wine-yellow. Nostrils situated on the middle of the 

 cere, large and open. Crown of head, cheeks and throat, cover- 

 ed with a naked skin, of a livid flesh-coloured red, with a few 

 straggling bristly feathers between the bill and eyes, and upon 

 the margins of the mandibles. Ears round, open, and large. 

 Occiput and nape covered with a close thick-set white down, 

 with small black feathers intermixed. Neck clothed with long 

 arched and acuminated feathers, forming a kind of ruft'of a deep 

 umber brown, tijaped with cream-yellow. Back and scapulars 

 cream-white, the latter intermixed and varied with umber- 

 brown. Lesser wing-coverts nearest the body deep umber- 

 brown, margined with a paler shade : these are succeeded by 



