400 The Griffon Vulture 
accompanied by a regurgitating process which quickly ends in the 
rejection of the whole of its last meal! When one considers what 
this must have been, it is best left to the imagination what it is 
like when thus presented to the too importunate naturalist. 
I made the discovery of this pretty habit in a very simple 
fashion. It was the first time I had got among the young Vultures 
and I was naturally much interested in seeing a young bird, which 
had assuredly never set eyes on a human being before, instantly 
sham death upon detecting my approach. Having got out my 
camera and taken a picture of it in this position at a few feet 
range, I proceeded to wedge the camera on the rock so as to 
take a time-exposure. The ledge I was on was narrow and 
behind me was space, the foot of the crag lying some hundreds 
of feet below. It was at the critical moment when I was deeply 
engrossed in the usual agonies of hand-camera work that my 
subject, rising from its simulated trance, made me a present of 
its last meal! Since then I have seen many young Griffons 
and have suffered from their manners and customs, but the 
memory of that first introduction to them and of my hasty de- 
parture upwards, for to retire was impossible, lives with me still. 
The beautiful white ruff around the gaunt neck of a Griffon isa 
sign of maturity. As a nestling and during the first and second 
years it has a ruff, but in place of being one of fine white down 
it is composed of fulvous lanceolate feathers. The exact period 
when these give way to the adult plumage is uncertain, but [| 
have proved by the bird I kept in an aviary and which now 
figures at the British Museum that the change does not come 
into effect at any rate before the third year. On the other 
hand | have seen parent Griffons who wore the miniature feather 
ruff in place of the white down one. From their movements 
I imagined them to be males; certainly all the females I have 
put off nests near enough to see the plumage wore the white ruff. 
