86 BIRDS OF TUNISIA 



NEOPHRON PERCNOPTERUS (Linnaeus). 



EGYPTIAN VULTURE. 



Yultur percnopterus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i, p. 123 (1766). 



Neophron percnopterus, Savigny, Syst. Ois. de I'Egypte. dc, p. 16 



(1810); Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Hits, i, p. 17 ; Malherbc, Cat. Rais. 



d'Ois. Alg. p. 5 (1846) ; LocJie, Expl. Sci. Alg. Ois. i, p. 11 (1867); 



Koenig, J. f. 0. 1888, p. 141; id. J. f. 0. 1892, p. 286 ; Wliitaker, 



Ibis, 1894, p. 96 ; Erlaiiger, J.f. 0. 1898, p. 442. 

 Cathartes percnopterus, Malherbc, Cat. Rais. d'Ois. Alg. p. 5 (1846). 



Description. — Adult male, spring, from North Tunisia. 



Entire plumage creamy-white, with the exception of the primaries which 

 are black, and the secondaries which are greyish-brown ; front of head and 

 throat bare ; the feathers on the hind part of the crown and nape lanceolate. 



Iris red ; bill black at tip, otherwise yellow ; feet flesh-colour. 



Total length 27 inches, wing 19, culmen 2-40, tarsus .3-2.5. 



Adult female, similar to the male. 



The young birds are of a dark brown colour. One in my collection is 

 dark brown throughout, with merely a few creamy-white feathers on the 

 back, rump and shoulders. The iris of the young bird is dark hazel. 



Observations. — Apparently the iris of this species changes greatly in 

 colour according to age, and varies from dark hazel in the young bird to 

 a deep red in the adult. I have often seen living birds of the species in 

 aviaries with lemon-yellow irides. 



This is a common species throughout the greater part of, the 

 Regency, particularly during the periods of passage ; though resident 

 all the year round in Tunisia, the species is also migratory there to a 

 considerable extent, and many more individuals are noticeable during 

 the spring and autumn than at other seasons. This species is 

 eminently migratory in its instincts, and although it appears to be 

 sedentary in some parts of Southern Europe, by far the greater part 

 of the birds observed north of the Mediterranean are certainly 

 migrants, which arrive in spring, and leave again for the south in 

 the autumn. In Sicily I have frequently seen the Egyptian Vulture 

 in spring, and the species undoubtedly breeds in that island, nestlings 

 of it having been obtained there at different times. There is a young 

 Neophron in my collection, apparently only a few weeks old, which 

 was captured on one of the mountains near Palermo, where I am 



