4 SCAVENGERS OF THE VELD 



white. It usually nests in krantzes (cliffs) in the Orange 

 Free State, constructing a rough saucer-shaped nest of 

 sticks on a ledge of rock, or on a boulder. It is some- 

 times placed within easy access on a rocky hillside, and 

 sometimes on steep cliffs, where it can only be reached 

 by means of a rope suspended from above. Years before 

 the war we visited several such nesting sites and found them 

 strewn with the skeletons and feathers of the Vultures. 

 It lays one egg in July or August, usually of a dirty white 

 colour, but sometimes marked with a few brown spots. 



In the Pretoria district it also builds in trees, and the 

 Transvaal Museum contains a huge nest of sticks, placed 

 in the fork of a mimosa, containing a half-fledged young 

 bird. Quite a number of these young Vultures were brought 

 to the Pretoria Zoological Gardens from the same locality. 



There is another fairly well-known species, the Black 

 Vulture, often called the Koning Aasvogel (King Vulture), 

 the Otogyps auricularis of science, which is considerably 

 scarcer than the ordinary Aasvogel, and is seldom seen in 

 large numbers, generally going about in pairs or in small 

 parties of from five to seven individuals. Mr. L. E. Taylor 

 mentions one exception, in which case he found twenty of 

 them together at Irene, Transvaal. 



This bird is apparently held in high respect by the ordinary 

 Griffon Vulture, a fact well illustrated on one notable occasion 

 in the Maroka district of the Orange Free State in 1894, 

 when about twenty vultures were feeding on a dead dog. 

 Suddenly a new arrival appeared on the scene, and the others 

 scattered, leaving the new-comer, a solitary Black Vulture, 

 to its lonely repast. It was a strange scene ; there the bird 

 stood w T renching off and swallowing lumps of flesh, while 

 round him in a ring, but at a respectful distance, sat the 

 others. As soon as "His Majesty " retired satisfied, the other 



