188 Mr. J. H. Gurney's Notes on 



With reference to the species now under consideration, Dr. 

 Brehm remarks that two of these Vultures, which he shot in 

 the act of incubation, proved to be male birds, and also (J. f. O. 

 1858, p. 403) that on pulling down another nest containing 

 an egg, on which the old Vulture had been sitting when he 

 approached the tree, he captured amongst the twigs which 

 formed the foundation of the nest a species of Dormouse (sup- 

 posed to be Myoxus caupei) which had formed its own retreat 

 in this singular situation. 



7. Gyps rueppelli, Bonap. Riippell's Vulture. 



Mr. Layard cites somewhat dubiously the occurrence of this 

 Vulture in Natal ; but the specimens sent thence by Mr. Ay res, 

 and mentioned in the ' Ibis ' for 1860 (p. 206), are undoubted 

 examples of this species. 



Both Vierthaler and Dr. A. E. Brehm describe this bird as 

 being remarkably pugnacious when wounded — much more so 

 (according to their observations) than any other African Vulture. 



Mr. G. B. Gray, to whose kind assistance I have been much 

 indebted in compiling these notes, as on many previous occa- 

 sions, agrees with me in considering that this Vultui'e should 

 bear the specific name of rueppelli ; the synonyms G. vulgaris 

 and G. kolbii being primarily referable to G, fulvus. 



12. Aquila tasciata, Vieill. Bonelli's Eagle. 



Mr. Layard refers to an Eagle shot at Wynberg, and identi- 

 fied by me as belonging to this species. 



I have no distinct recollection of this specimen ; but subse- 

 quently to my examination of it I became better acquainted 

 than I then was with a closely allied species — Spizaetus spilo- 

 gaster, Bp. (B. Z. 1850, p. 487), which greatly resembles Bonelli's 

 Eagle in the character both of its adult and of its immature 

 plumage, and the female bird of which nearly equals in size the 

 male of A.fasciata. Under these circumstances I think it is not 

 impossible that the bird which I believed to be a South-African 

 example of Bonelli's Eagle may prove, on closer examination, to 

 be a female specimen of S. spilogaster, and I wish to draw 

 attention to the subject as one in respect of which further 

 investigation is desirable. 



