312 GRIFFON-VULTURE. 



and has been captured on the chffs to the north-west of Cherbourg. 

 It annually visits the south of France in autumn ; breeds in small 

 numbers on the Spanish frontier in the Western Pyrenees ; and is 

 common in the mountainous portions of the Iberian Peninsula, as 

 well as in most of the situations suitable to its habits in Southern 

 Europe and the basins of the Mediterranean, Black and Caspian 

 Seas. In Switzerland and the Carpathians it is of very rare occur- 

 rence, though it has been obtained in Poland, and in Germany as 

 far north as East Prussia ; while in Russia it is found up to about 

 lat. 50°, and has considerably extended its range northward along 

 the Ural Mountains during the last forty years. In Asia it can be 

 traced to Turkestan and the mountains of Northern India, where, 

 however, it meets with a larger form which has been separated as 

 G. himalayensis ; while in Africa it is resident as far south as 

 Nubia (though represented by G. kolbi in the south), and is found 

 in the Red Sea district down to Aden. 



Towards the end of January the Griffon- Vultures may be seen 

 building or repairing their nests with branches of trees and claws- 

 full of grass torn up by the roots. Their usual resorts are over- 

 hung ledges, cavities and fissures, such as are especially frequent in 

 limestone ranges, and these are seldom accessible from above with- 

 out a rope ; while owing to thick scrub the base of the cliff is often 

 unattainable. Exceptionally a nest has been found in a tree. In the 

 latter part of February, though sometimes not till the end of March, 

 I and not rarely 2 eggs are laid ; these are rough in texture, and 

 usually white in colour, but some are more or less marked with 

 genuine blotches of a rusty-brown, as well as with blood-stains : 

 measurements 37 by 2-8 in. A strong and unpleasant musky smell 

 pervades the eggs, nest, and the whole dung-splashed ledge. Like 

 other Vultures, this species hunts by means of its keen sight ; the 

 alteration in the flight of the nearest bird, on the discovery of a 

 carcase, being quickly noticed and followed-up by more distant 

 individuals. During the lambing-season I have seen it on the 

 ground, assiduous in its attendance upon the ewes \ but it is an 

 arrant coward and I never knew of its touchmg any living creature. 

 It is at all times somewhat gregarious. 



The general colour is bufifish-brown, with black on the wings and 

 tail ; the head and neck are covered with whitish down ; and there 

 is a broad ruff, which is composed of long whitish filaments in the 

 adult, but of brownish acuminate feathers in the young ; under parts 

 striated buff in the adult, warm fulvous in the young. Length about 

 42 in., wing 28 in. ; the female being slightly smaller than the male. 



