EGYPTIAN VULTURE. O 



This name, referring to the black and white colours of the 

 adult birds, is said to be derived from Rahama, a name 

 applied to a particular breed of sheep in Arabia Felix, which 

 are black and white. Bruce, however, thinks this name has 

 a different origin, and derived from higher antiquity, since 

 Rachma, or the Vulture, was sacred to Isis, and considered 

 as an emblem of parental affection ; he therefore thinks it 

 may be derived from the Hebrew, Rechem, which signifies fe- 

 male love or attachment. Bruce adds, that this bird builds its 

 nest in the most deserted parts of the country, and lays but 

 two eggs. The parent birds attend their young with great 

 care, and feed them for the first four months. It is consider- 

 ed a breach of order to kill any one of these birds in Cairo. 



From Turkey this species ranges over Arabia and Persia, 

 and has been taken in the Russian dominions as far north as 

 Astrachan, from whence it again extends eastward and south- 

 ward as far as the peninsula of India, and is included in a 

 Catalogue of the Birds of the Dukhun by Colonel Sykes, who 

 remarks of them, " that they are always found in canton- 

 ments and camps. For the most part of the day they con- 

 tinue on the wing, soaring in circles. When on the ground, 

 they walk with a peculiar gait, lifting their legs very high. 

 They are efficient scavengers." 



In the adult bird, the whole length from the point of the 

 beak to the end of the tail is from twenty-six to twenty-nine 

 inches ; and specimens from Africa are observed to be the 

 largest in size. The cere and beak are yellow, the point 

 brown ; the irides red : the naked skin of the cheeks and front 

 of the neck yellowish flesh colour ; the feathers of the occiput 

 and back of the neck slightly elongated : all the plumage 

 wdiite except the primary and secondary wing-feathers, the 

 first of which are wholly black ; the second have the proximal 

 half black, — which colour, extending beyond the ends of the 



