VULTUR PERENOPTERUS. 47 



nest till July, before which time they are incapable of flight. 

 Of four sets of eggs taken in Western Barbary there were two 

 pairs and two single eggs. 



The neophron is nowhere so plentiful as in Egypt, particularly 

 about Cairo, where it was considered a great breach of law, at 

 the time the Abyssinian traveller Bruce wrote, to kill one. 

 In Cairo and other Egyptian towns it occupies the roofs of 

 houses (like our common jackdaw) in company with black kites, 

 hawks, crows, and turtle doves — all forming a distinct popula- 

 tion, not less numerous but more peaceable than that below. 

 Bruce says that the Arab name of Rachaina still applied to this 

 bird proves that it was the emblem of parental affection, which 

 is so frequently mistranslated eagle in the Bible. " Oh, that I 

 had the wings of the eagle to flee away and be at rest," is an apt 

 expression, as the vulture can fly at the rate of 150 miles an 

 hour. Theold proverb says truly — "Riches certainly make them- 

 selves wings ; they fly away as an eagle towards heaven." 

 And old Jeremiah also truly says — " Though thou should'st 

 make thy nest as high as the eagle, I will bring thee down from 

 thence, saith the Lord f which Obadiah reiterates by saying — 

 " Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle, and though thou set 

 thy nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee down, saith 

 the Lord." And Samuel says that Saul and Jonathan " were 

 swifter than eagles and stronger than lions ;" thus identifying 

 the king of birds with the king of beasts. 



In South Africa, Le Yaillant found a pair attached to most of 

 the dwellings of the natives, generally seated upon the fences 

 with which they enclose their cattle, where they are not only 

 uninjured by the owners, but are objects of pleasure to them — - 

 eating greedily what they refuse. They are occasionally collected 

 in numbers round their food, like the larger vultures. During 

 the Erench occupation of Egypt the first shot of the cannon 

 brought these and other birds of similar tastes from every 

 direction. For as the blue-bottle fly will collect and buzz 

 around the shambles in time of peace, so does the vulture — - 

 true to its own instinct, in warm climates — wheel above the 

 field of battle and pounce upon the dead in times of barbarous 

 war. The proof that boasted civilization has not yet fulfilled 

 its harmonizing mission upon earth — if it ever will do so ! 



The eggs of this species are highly coloured, and differ very 

 much in their shape and colour — some are dark red, like the 

 kestrel's or merlin's ; others lighter, more like the golden eagle's, 

 but smaller. The egg they are likest is the osprey's — some are 



