61 



the many naked necks fonned a close and variegated cii'cle 

 round the carrion, I sent amongst them a single load of lead, 

 especially prepared for them ; with the noise of thunder they 

 all started in hasty flight, but soon settled down again a few 

 hundred paces froiii it. Expecting that the birds would soon 

 draw nearer again, I delayed the examination of the result 

 which my shot might have produced ; only one corpse lay in 

 the place fiiuhicusj ^ about one huncbed yards from it another 

 ffulvusj. A few minutes elapsed, when the whole company 

 gathered together on the bank of the river, and, according to 

 their accustomed manner, sitting quietly with their wings 

 expanded, probably to warm their ruffled plumage by the de- 

 lightful rays of a Sennaar sun. The reason why they had 

 settled down here were two winged Ear-vultiu-es, which by 

 running made theu* escape to that place. The close cotton-field 

 in which I was concealed, prevented me from looking in that 

 direction. My seizing the two latter, scared, by and by, all 

 the larger birds, only the smaller vultures fjnleatus and perc- 

 nopterusj and the 3Iilui remained gleaning for a short time 

 after. Amongst the vultures proper, nuhicus was represented 

 by far the largest numbers, next came fulvus, only three or 

 four occipitaleSj and a few of a smaller species.* The many 

 large thick-headed vultures which we have observed and shot, 

 were all without the skin flaps on the neck, living as well as 

 dead. The observation which has been made that vultures, 

 when their crop is full, are less timid, and even said to be 

 frequently incapable of raising themselves, cannot, according to 

 my own observations, be refen-ed to these birds." 



The details given by different travellers respecting the 

 nidification of this \Tiltm'e present some considerable variations, 

 which probably may arise from the fact of many of their obser- 

 vations having been made in different localities, Le Vaillant, 

 in his account of this species in the "Birds of Africa," states 



* These appear by a reference to another passage in Dr. Vierthaler's 

 Journal to have been specimeus of Gyps bengalerms. 



