THE IBIS. 



FIFTH SERIES. 



No. XII. OCTOBER 1885. 



XXXIV. — Additional Notes on the Ornithology of Transvaal. 

 By Thomas Aykes. Communicated by John IIknky 



GURNEY. 



[Continued from ' The Ibis,' 1884, p. 2:3;?.] 



[In the following notes the species not previously recorded 

 from the Transvaal by Mr. Ayres are numbered consecutively 

 with his previous lists. — J. H. G.] 



Gyps rueppellIj Bon. Riippell's Vulture. 



Male, Vaal river near Potchefstroom. Total length 27 

 inches, wing 22'5, tail 10*5, tarsus 4, bill from gape 2"25, 

 middle toe with claw 5*25. 



My brother, whilst shooting some thirty miles down the 

 Vaal river, found these Vultures breeding rather plentifully, 

 and brought me from one of their nests an egg wliich 

 measures 3'75x2'75 inches. This egg, which was taken 

 15th June, 1884, still (March 1885) smells very strongly of 

 the musky odour peculiar to the Vultures ; the g^^ was 

 somewhat incubated, and as there was but one in the nest, 

 that is probably the number usually laid. It is a white egg, 

 very sparsely and rather faintly marked with reddish-brown 

 spots of eccentric shapes, which are rather more numerous at 

 the thick end of the egg than elsewhere ; the shell is rough 



SER. V. VOL. HI. 2 B 



