Occasional Xotes. 41 



to the Red Sea, and thence down the eastern side o£ Africa 

 as far as Cape Colony, but it is not known from West Africa. 

 In South Africa it appears to be widely distributed, though 

 nowhere very common. In Cape Colony it is recorded from 

 the Malmesbury district. East London (where it frequents 

 the krantzes along the Buffalo River), Colesberg, and Aliv\al 

 North. 



The following are the principal characters by which the 

 Egyptian Vulture may be known : — The beak is weak, long 

 and slender, and the nostrils elongated and horizontal. The 

 top of the head, sides of the face, and throat are almost bare ; 

 the feathers from the back of the head and down the back of 

 the neck are l;mce-:?haped and erect, forming a ruff ; the 

 general colour is a dirty white, the winglet and primaries 

 l)lack, the latter ashy along the base of the outer web ; the 

 tail-feathers are fourteen in number. 



As regards its habits, the Egyptian Vulture is seldom seen 

 in large numbers, except around a carcase. They are even 

 more filthy than other Vultures, feeding largely on excre- 

 ment, and picking the bones of dead animals abandoned by 

 others. It is stated that in the country around the Orange 

 River they prey on the eggs of Ostriches, which they break 

 by dropping upon them a stone carried up into the air for 

 the purpose. It is well that actual evidence of this should 

 be forthcoming. Mr. Gradwell states that the present 

 specimen killed one of his small Ostrich chicks. 



Albany Museum, J. E. D. 



17tli Sept., 1907. 



III. Ladies' Hats and Bird Exterminatio^t. 



[From the ' S. A. Poultry Journal,' April 5, 1907.] 

 According to ' L'Aviculteur,' the wholesale destruction, 

 for purpose of millinery, of certain species of birds threatens 

 at no distant date to bring about the extermination of some 

 of the rarer and more beautiful kinds which the world 

 possesses. How real this danger is may be estimated by the 

 fact that in one market alone were sold lately at one time 

 12,000 Humming-Birds, 28,000 Parrakeets, 15,000 King- 



