OOTHECA WOLLEYANA. 



NEOPHRON PERCNOPTERUS (Linnaus). 



EGYPTIAN VULTURE. 



§ 1. One. — Tangier, April 1845. From M. Favier's Collection, 

 1846. 



Hewitson, ' Eggs of British Birds,' pi. i. 



One day, during my stay atTangier, September 1845, after an inquiry 

 about some monkeys, I was taken by Hamet, my guardian Moor, to 

 a jmtio (courtyard) round wliieh lived in apparent harmony a Jewish, 

 a Moorish, and a French family. The latter consisted of a solitary 

 individual, who dealt in monkeys, and who also skinned boars^ heads, 

 jackals, ichneumons, and other trophies of the Consul's shooting- 

 parties. He showed me a quantity of birds' skins, well preserved, 

 and, as far as my knowledge went, correctly named from a copy of 

 Temminck's * Manuel ' that he greatly prized. Upon my asking for 

 eggs, he produced some ; and he assured me that all of them that were 

 named had had the mother killed over them. Every egg that I knew 

 was correctly named, with the trifling exception of a Goatsucker's, 

 marked Turdus merula ; and so I was fortunate enough to procure eggs 

 of the Little Bustard, Stilt, Pratincole, and Bee-eater. The only eggs 

 I felt in doubt about were four, marked Cathartes percnopterus. I 

 fully believed that this bird laid a white e^^ ; and I did not think it 

 could be so small as these. However, M. Favier (for that was the 

 Frenchman's name) assured me that the old one was killed off" one of 

 the nests, was bought by Mr. Sandford, and is now in England. I 

 was also show a a nestling young one. The eggs were taken in, different 

 years, as the dates 1843 and 1845 on them testified ; two single ones ; 

 the other two, — each, as he said, " half of a complete nest." In fine, he 

 " gave for false " all that had ever been written about the egg of this 

 bird, asserted that it was unknown in Paris or in London, and thtit 



