EGYPTIAN VULTURE. 5 
The following is the description of a yearling bird, the age, 
as is believed, of the specimen before spoken of:—Bill, of a 
dark horn-colour; cere, which is thickest at the base, and 
reaches over half the length of the bill, yellow; iris, red; 
(Meyer says that at a year old the iris is brown;) there are 
a few bristles on the edges of the bill, and between it and 
the eyes; crest, as in the adult bird. The head is covered 
with a bare skin of a deep reddish colour; the neck clothed 
with long hackle feathers, which form a kind of ruff of deep 
brown, tipped with cream-colour; and the nape with thick 
white down, interspersed with small black feathers. The chin 
has some tufts of hair beneath it. The back is cream white; 
the wings, five fect six to five feet mine inches in expanse; 
secondaries, pale brown, tipped and edged with yellowish white; 
larger wing coverts, deep brown, varied with cream white; 
lesser wing coverts, deep brown near the body, succeeded by 
lighter feathers, and these again by cream-coloured ones; tail, 
long and wedge-shaped; legs, yellowish grey; the middle toe 
has four scales on the last joint, and the outer and inner ones 
three each; the claws are blackish brown, and only slightly 
curved. 
