12 A Description of the Birds 
v. 1, p. 149, pl. enl. 426.—Le Griffon Buff. Ois, v. 1, p. 151, 
tab. 5.—Savigny Syst. d. Ois d’Eg. p. 11.—Vultur Kolbii 
Lath. Ind. Orn. Supp. vol. 2, p. 1.—lLe Chassefiente Le Vaill. 
Ois d’ Afriq. vol. 1, pl. 10. 
V. griseus seu albus, capute nuchaque setis subalbidis tectis ; 
parte inferiore cervices nuda, remigibis primioribus nigris, secun- 
dariis preecipue subgriseiis; rectricibus nigris griseo wmbratis, 
rostro, pedibus que lividis; unguibus nigris ; oculis subrutilis. 
Head and nape covered with dirty short whitish hairs, or 
bristles ; lower part of cervix bare, and of a bluish colour ; 
lower part of throat, and middle of breast, covered with 
short bristly grayish brown feathers ; rest of throat, sides of 
neck, and upper part of cervix, with fine whitish down, and 
bristles resembling those of the head. Skin, as seen through 
these coverings, between livid blue and purple; lower part of 
neck behind with a frizzy ruff of short white feathers; plumage 
of upper and under parts white, or a pale blossom color ; pri- 
mary quill feathers black; secondaries grayish, shaded with 
black towards their vanes; tail rounded, and composed of 
fourteen black feathers, tinted with gray. Bill, legs, and 
toes, livid blue, with shades of dirty green; claws black ; 
eyes light yellowish red ; length from three feet, to three feet 
six inches ; breadth from tip to tip of wings, about eight feet. 
The feathers of the back, shoulders, breast, belly and legs, 
have their tips rounded or semicircular. The male and fe- 
male are of the same colour, and the latter considerably 
exceeds the former in size. 
Young.—During the first year the prevailing color is dark 
brown, variegated by narrow longitudinal streaks of light 
reddish yellow or pale fulvous, one along the centre of each 
feather ; the head is covered with a dusky white down, as is 
likewise the upper part of the cervix and sides of the neck ; 
the throat and centre of the breast are dark brown; the pri- 
mary and secondary quills, together with the tail, are brown- 
ish black; the bill and legs are blackish ; the eyes are dark 
brown, and the skin of the head is a dirty sulphur yellow. 
The ruff on the back of the neck is distinctly marked, and 
composed of long, narrow, pointed, soft, and silky brown 
feathers, many of which are re-curved towards the head. 
After the first moulting, the plumage, which is that of the 
second year, is considerably lighter in color, and commonly 
the centres of all the feathers, but particularly of the breast 
and belly are much less dark than the other parts thereof. 
From this stage each successive annual change is marked 
by a diminution of the depth of the color; yet, nevertheless, 
it requires several years to pass from the tint of the first 
feathers to that of the faint issabella hue, which announ- 
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