84 Mr. 13rce's ' Birds of Europe 



gentleman's name ; and we fear that after the completion of the 

 next family, the Striffidce, we shall have to look in vain for that 

 discreet Mentor, of whom, we suspect, our Telemachus stands 

 greatly in need. Mr. Bree describes in these seven parts twenty- 

 two species, which, as far as our knowledge at present goes, 

 seems to be about the number of European Diurnal Raptores 

 not to be found in Britain. But then we should strike out 

 without hesitation a species which our author admits, and per- 

 haps replace it by another not hitherto included in the Eu- 

 ropean list. It is true that one or two of these rest upon 

 " dealers^ authority," or rather, we should say, the authority 

 of naturalists, to support which, dealers always have speci- 

 mens at hand from the desired localities. Such an instance 

 is, we take it, the case of the Sociable Vulture {Otogijps auricu- 

 laris, Gray), of which, as it has the credit of occurring in 

 Greece, examples may usually be bought, said to have been ob- 

 tained in that country, with the localities and dates marked on 

 their labels, for aught we know, in the letters Cadmus gave, and 

 according to the calendar Meton instituted. But of this par- 

 ticular bird two examples are stated as having occurred in West- 

 ern Europe, one of which was a few years since alive at Antwerp ; 

 and anyhow we think it may be pronounced to be an occasional 

 visitant, and therefore admitted among the number. The Cine- 

 reous Vulture {Vultur monachus, L.) — the " Vautour Arrian^' of 

 our neighbours — has a much better, nay, an undoubted claim to 

 be included, rare though it be. W^e beg to add Albania as a 

 locality for it to those hitherto enumerated, on the testimony of 

 a roving and bird-loving friend, who not long since was on a 

 shooting excursion in that country, and saw there a " big black 

 fellow" about sixty yards from him. The Vultur kolbii, a phan- 

 tom which once haunted the European list, has now long since 

 been laid; and our author, very properly, shows no disposition to 

 raise him again. With the help of quotations from Bruce and 

 Tschudi, Mr. Bree discourses eloquently respecting the Bearded 

 Vulture {Gypaetus barbatus, Cuv.j, the pride of European plun- 

 derers; but, considering that by many naturalists the Gypaete 

 from Abyssinia is regarded as a distinct species, we think him 

 hardly prudent in referring Bruce^s entertaining anecdote to the 



