Size, Span of Wings and Weight 213 
dark brown above with richer browns on its wings, the big 
primaries and tail feathers being brownish black. It weighed 
18 Ib., being 45 in. in length with an expanse of wings of just 
under 9 ft. I skinned and preserved this bird and have it now 
stuffed in my house. It was fasting when I shot it, and so its 
seeming lethargy was not due to a recent heavy meal as might 
have been imagined. Rather would I attribute its allowing me 
to creep up within shot to the fact that a westerly gale was 
blowing and the bird had alighted to rest in the middle of the 
great level plain and suspected no danger. It was the first and 
last Black Vulture I ever shot at. 
In Spain the Black Vulture always strikes larger on the eye 
than does the Griffon and as far as my observation goes, it 
always is a larger bird, being severai inches longer and with 
a wider expanse of wing. On the other hand, according to 
Colonel Irby and others, in India the Griffons are of a larger 
race than those in Spain, whilst the Black Vultures are of the 
same size as those found in Europe. 
Allan Hume, in his “ Notes on Indian Birds,” is one of the very 
few writers on ornithology who has placed on record the sizes 
and weights of the birds he has described. I would commend 
a study of this book to all sportsmen or naturalists who are 
interested in the size and weight of birds. 
Hume gives the weight of the Black Vultures in India as 
from 12 lb. to 20 |lb., with 14 lb. as an average; this is much the 
same as that of the Spanish birds. Nevertheless it has been 
stated that in Spain they have been shot “weighing between 2 st. 
to 3 st.” (28 lb. to 42 |b.), but in justice to those concerned 
it must be admitted that the weight thus given was merely 
“estimated.” 
The average expanse of wing of these fine birds is from 8 ft. 
6 in. tog ft. Hume records a big female of 9 ft. 10 in, 
