144 ALCONIFORMES 



coustructing a bulky shallow nest of sticks, grass, and wool almost 

 invariably on trees, iuid laying one, or rarely two, white eggs 

 blotched with dark red. Tlie plumage is brownish -black, with a 

 ruff of lanceolate feathers below the bare neck, and black down 

 on the crown and throat. The naked skin and cere are of a livid 

 flesh-colour, the feet yellowish ; the bill is black, the iris brown. 

 Lophogyps occipitalis, of East and South Africa and Senegal, is dark 

 brown with blacker reniiges and rectrices, and some white on the 

 wings ; the reddish head and neck are bare, except for white down 

 on the crown, which thickens towards the occiput : the ruff is 

 brown, the abdomen and crop are white, the feet pinkish ; the bill 

 is orange witli bluish cere, the iris brown. Otogyps aurindaris, of 

 North-East and South Africa, called the " Eared A^ilture " from the 

 fleshy lappets (of the same pinkish colour as the naked head, cere, 

 and feet) on the sides of the neck, is brown, with blackish wings and 

 tail, varied by white down on the thighs and chest ; a brown ruft' 

 covers the hind-neck, wliile the bill and irides are yellow. 0. calvus, 

 the smaller Pondicherry- or King- Vulture of India, Buinia, and 

 Siarn, is black. These birds usually hunt in pairs, driving all 

 intruders except Eagles from their prey : they construct innnense 

 stick nests, often used in successive years, on thick bushes or trees ; 

 straw, leaves, and the like being added for lining, and one white 

 egg, often witli red-brown markings, deposited. Gy2^s fulvvs, the 

 Griffon Vulture, which luis occurred in (lermany, Poland, and once 

 in Britain, breeds from the Spanish I'yrenees through Southern 

 Europe and Xortliern Africa, reaching lat. 50*^ N. in Eussia, and 

 extending eastward to North India, by way of Turkestan, where 

 it overlaps the larger form G. hlmdlaycvsis. It is fawn-brown 

 above and streaky buff below, with nearly black wings and tail, the 

 adults having a downy white ruff, represented in the young by a 

 brown collar; the head is thinly covered with white hairs, the 

 l)eak is horn-coloured witli blue-black cere, the feet are plumbeous, 

 the irides orange. This active though cowardly species is often 

 seen basking on rocks at mid-day ; it flies or hovers with easy 

 movements, and can soar until' it almost disappears in the sky. It 

 has a uTOwlincr note. The nest, a mass of sticks and yrass of vari- 

 able size, is placed on cliffs, and contains one or even two white 

 eggs, sometimes with rusty markings. Incubation lasts forty days, 

 the young remaining three months in the nest. G. holhi of South 

 Africa is much paler ; G. rnppeUi, of the north-east and south of 



