Find a Young Vulture in Nest 441 
confess to experiencing a perfect agony of hopes and fears. Was 
the nest tenanted or not? Arrived at the overhanging crag I 
hauled myself inwards and as | came opposite the nest looked in 
and saw nothing tn wt / 
It was the same huge structure of sticks as of the previous year 
amply lined with richly coloured brown sheep’s wool and goatshair. 
Next instant | detected not four feet from me and flattened down 
amid the brown wool a big young bird of colour identical with 
the nest, squatting motionless with head and beak resting on the 
thick masses of wool in front of it. 
The revulsion was indescribable! Swinging myself into the 
nest, I signalled for more rope and crawled into the cavern, which 
was an awkward cramped place, as will be seen. 
Although at the entrance the cavern was six feet high, the roof 
shelved downwards until at the back it was not two feet above the 
nest. The total depth of it was about 4 feet and the width 6 feet. 
Crouching low in the inner corner of the cavern so as to avoid 
the risk of slipping out, I proceeded to examine the place. The 
nest measured almost exactly four feet in diameter with a bowl in 
the inner side, 18 inches across. The young Vulture was about 
the size of a tame duck and was covered with a thick close down, 
pale umber brown in colour, save on the head, where it approached 
to a vandyke-brown. The primary feathers and tail were just 
emerging from their quills and were very dark brown and about 
half-an-inch in length, whilst on the scapular tracts two bars of 
shorter dark feathers were showing. The irides were of a dull 
pale brown, the beak and feet horn-coloured. | had expected to 
see a bird with a quick eye, but it was exactly the reverse, the 
dulness and lack-lustre of it being quite remarkable. All the time 
I watched it, it kept up a continuous and rapid blinking which 
augured ill for photography. 
But what impressed me most were the to me entirely novel 
