X 



VULTURES 



HAVING dealt in Bombay Ducks with 

 what I may perhaps term the domestic 

 vulture of India — Neophron ginginianus, 

 or Pharaoh's chicken — I do not pro- 

 pose again to discuss this worthy but ugly fowl. 

 Nevertheless, before passing on to the aristocratic 

 vultures, I cannot resist the temptation to re- 

 produce Phil Robinson's inimitable description of 

 our famihar Neophron : "A shabby-looking fowl 

 of dirty white plumage, about the size of an able- 

 bodied hen, but disproportionately long for its height, 

 pacing seriously along the high road, taking each 

 step with its legs set wide apart, with all the circum- 

 spection of a Chinaman among papers, but keeping 

 its eyes as busily about it for chance morsels of refuse 

 as any other professional scavenger. The traffic, 

 both of vehicles and foot passengers, may be con- 

 siderable, but the vulture is a municipal institution 

 and knows it. No one thinks of molesting it ; indeed, 

 if it chose to obstruct the footpath, the natives would 

 make way for it. Children let it alone, and dogs do 

 not run after it. So it goes plodding through its 



55 



