388 The Griffon Vulture 
movement, and very unpleasant they are. Setting aside their 
admitted want of discrimination in the matter of food, at any rate 
according to our tastes, and one or two of their habits and customs 
immediately connected with it, to which allusion will be made 
later, they are without question, when on the wing, among the 
most magnificent of birds. To watch them circling thousands of 
feet overhead on the look-out for food or sailing past one of the 
grand cliffs whither they resort to nest in big colonies is a never- 
failing joy. During the many years I have spent among wild birds 
I have from time to time induced friends to accompany me to some 
of the nesting-stations of these birds and have as often witnessed 
the surprise and delight they have betrayed on first seeing the 
Vultures on the wing in these localities. On such occasions one 
is far removed from the spot where the birds have found their 
last unsavoury meal, and one only thinks of them and sees them 
as splendid birds with vast expanse of wing endowed with most 
marvellous powers of flight. 
Those who have only seen a party of Vultures fighting over 
a carcase and defiling their plumage with its horrible fragments 
will hardly credit that the Vulture at home, given reasonable time 
to perform its toilet after one of its orgies, is one of the most spick- 
and-span of birds. Under its feathers is a mass of snowy white 
down which is ever kept in the most irreproachable condition. 
Those who are taken aback by the apparent inconsistency are 
invited to inspect the case of Vultures at the British Museum of 
Natural History and to judge for themselves of the correctness 
of my assertion. The big female bird with outspread wings to 
be seen there was shot from the nest and skinned and preserved 
by me, and was in exactly the same beautiful clean condition when 
first killed as now. Again, a young bird taken from the nest and 
brought up on fresh food is as little objectionable as is any other 
bird kept in captivity. I have put this to a practical test and 
