Proceedings. 79 



The Vultures of Bombay congregate in the forenoon on 

 Malabar Hill, where are the Towers of Silence to which the 

 Parsees carry their dead. On one of the five Towers of 

 Silence I counted twenty-four Vultures, and many more 

 perched on trees around. At Sohagpur, in the Central 

 Provinces, I counted sixty-nine Vultures in sight at one 

 time, and twelve more rose from behind bushes. These had 

 congregated around a rough valley where the Mohamedans 

 slaughter cattle. An Adjutant or Gigantic Stork (Leptoptilos 

 arrjala) was amongst them. The most abundant kinds of 

 brown Vulture m Central India are the White-backed Vulture 

 {Gyps bengal eiisis), and the Long-billed Brown Vulture {Gyps 

 hulicus). When soaring overhead, a Vulture is a splendid 

 bird, with majestic spread of wing ; when perching on a tree- 

 top, it is an innate, repulsive-looking fowl ; when gorging on 

 •a dead donkey, as I saw Vultures doing at Hoshungabad, it 

 is loathsome. The White Scavenger Vulture [yeophron 

 peraioptei'us) is an abundant bird, to be seen in pairs around 

 .every village and town in Central India, in company with the 

 .Kites. It is a dwarf as compared with the Brown Vultures. 

 On the ground it has an awkward waddle, and is far from 

 being an attractive bird when seen at close quarters ; but 

 when soaring aloft amongst the Kites, it is a very graceful 

 object. 



In the beautifully-kept flower-garden surrounding the 

 Towers of Silence the handsomest shrub in bloom in 

 December was a scarlet Hibiscus, with flowers five inches 

 across. Into the recesses of these splendid blossoms a tiny 

 Purple Honey-sucker {Arachnechthra asiatica) was thrusting 

 its slender, curved bill. Most nearly allied of Indian birds to 

 the Humming-birds, these delicate little Honey-suckers may 

 .be seen in nearly every flower-garden, and their cheerful little 

 chirp heard. Plumage varies much with age and season. 

 Some birds are glossy, dark purple, almost black, all over ; 

 others are pearly-grey on the head and back, have brown 

 wings, and are white below, tinged with yellow ; others have 

 a dark-purple streak down the breast, and blue markings on 

 the sides. 



