VULTURID^ LOPHOGYPS 391 



while Layard states that there was formerly a nesting place 

 near Prensch Hoek. Buckley procured eggs from Salt Kiver 

 Vlei in Beaufort West ; and there is an example in the Grahams- 

 town Museum from the Koonap river in the Albany district. Oates 

 obtained a specimen on the river Umvungu between Bulawayo and 

 Salisbury and Andersson states that it is the commonest vulture in 

 Great Namaqualand and Damaraland. 



Habits. — The Black Vulture appears to be a solitary bird and is 

 generally seen singly or in pairs at ordinary times ; though often 

 noticed with the Kolbe's Vulture round a carcass, it is nearly always 

 in smaller numbers. Ayres states that it is a more wary bird 

 and more difficult to procure than the other species. Its breeding 

 habits have been observed by Verreaux near the Olifant river, by 

 Layard near Frensch Hoek in the Paarl division, by Ayres in the 

 Orange Eiver Colony, and by Buckley at Salt Kiver Valley in the 

 Beaufort West division. 



It builds a very large nest in the upper branches, usually of a 

 low thorn tree ; the nest is composed of coarse sticks lined with 

 finer sticks, wool, and lumps of hair, and is of great size, measuring 

 about 4 feet in diameter and is shghtly concave above. Only one 

 egg is laid, in June or July, this is of a dirty white colour some- 

 times plain, sometimes spotted with deep red-brown especially at 

 the obtuse end. One taken by Buckley measured 3*48 x 2-76. 



Genus IV. LOPHOGYPS. 



Type. 

 Lophogyps, Bp. Bev. Mag. Zool, 1854, p. 531 L. occipitahs. 



Bill not so powerful or strong as in Otogyps ; nostrils a vertical 

 or slightly diagonal oval ; crown and occiput covered with a thick 

 cushion of soft down ; tail-feathers twelve in number ; tarsus longer 

 than the middle toe without claw, only the upper fourth covered 

 with feathers. 



Only one species, confined to tropical and South Africa, is 

 recognised. 



559. Lophogyps occipitalis. White-headed Vulture. 



Vultur occipitalis, Burchell, Travels, ii, p. 329 (1824) ; Cretschm. in 

 Bux>]). Atlas, p. 33, pi. 22 (1826) ; Smith, S. A. Quart. Journ. i, 

 p. 15 (1829) ; Gurney, Ibis, 1859, p. 235 (Natal) ; id. Descript. Cat. 

 Bajd. Bds. p. 65 (1861) ; Layard, B. S. Afr. p. 5 (1867) ; Ayres, 



