WAGELL 1017 



Egyptian Vulture, and in Africa nearly reaches tlie Equator, extend- 

 ing also in Asia to the Himalayas ; but both in the Ethiopian and 

 Indian Regions its range inosculates with that of several allied forms 

 or species. Psexidogijps with two forms — one Indian, the other 

 African — differs from Gyps by having twelve instead of fourteen 

 rectrices. Of the genera Otogyps and Lophogyps nothing here need 

 be said; and then we have Vultur, with, as mentioned before, its 

 sole representative, V. monachus, commonly known as the Cinereous 

 Vulture, a bird which is found from the Strait of Gibraltar to the 

 sea-coast of China.^ Almost all these birds inhabit rocky cliffs, on 

 the ledges of which they build their nests.^ 



W 



WAGELL,^ the Cornish name of a bird of which Eay and Wil- 

 lughby were told, 30th June 1662, on Godreve Island near St. Ives 

 in Cornwall (Memorials of Eay, ed. Lankester, p. 188, and Ray, 

 Collection of Words, p. 93). From what is said of it the Arctic 

 Gull (Skua, p. 870) seems to have been meant, but they took it 

 to be the young of what we now know as Larus marinus, and so the 

 name has been attached to that species by subsequent writers.* 



^ The geographical range of the vaidoiis species of Vultures has been treated 

 by Dr. Sharpe {Journ. Linn. Soc. Zool. xiii. pp. ]-26, j^ls. i.-ix.). 



^ The question whether Vultures in their search for food are guided by sight 

 of the object or by its scent has long excited interest. Without denying to them 

 the olfactory faculty, it is now generally admitted, notwithstanding the assertions 

 to the contrary of Waterton and a few more, that the former is in almost every 

 case sufficient to account for the observed facts. It is known that directly a 

 camel drojDS dead, as the caravan to which it belonged is making its way across 

 the desert, Vultures of one sort or another appear, often in considerable numbers, 

 though none had before been observed by the traveller, and speedily devour the 

 carcase over which they are gathered together. The mode in which communica- 

 tion is effected between the birds, which are soaring at an immense height, seems 

 at first inexplicable, but Canon Tristram suggested {Ihis, 1859, p. 280) a simple 

 solution of the supposed mystery: — "The Griffon who first descries his quarry 

 descends from liiB elevation at once. Another, sweeping the horizon at a still 

 greater distance, observes his neighbour's movements and follows liis course. A 

 third, still further removed, follows the flight of the second ; he is traced by 

 another ; and so a perpetual succession is kept up so long as a morsel of flesh 

 remains over which to consort." 



^ The derivation and pronunciation of this word are unknown to me. It is 

 spelt indifferently by Eay with one I or two. I preserve the latter form as pos- 

 sibly indicating a stress to be laid on the last syllable. 



* See Additions to Borlase's Natural History (reprinted from Journ. R. Inst. 

 Cornwall, Oct. 1865), Truro: 1865, p. 46. 



