146 Mr. A. B. Brooke on the 



selves of the perfect safety of the locality. The greatest 

 number I ever recollect having seen together was on one oc- 

 casion near Oristano, when I counted about eighty soaring 

 over a dead carcass. For a long time previously I had been 

 watching them floating in from all quarters, at a great height, 

 with marvellous rapidity. Both this and the following species 

 seem to have a habit of resorting, night after night, to the 

 same place to roost. One of these roosting-spots I visited. 

 It was on the top of a bare tolerably isolated hill, between 

 3000 and 4000 feet in height. The highest point was composed 

 of a cluster of precipitous rocks, with a few old stunted ilices 

 growing along their face. Both in the rocks and trees there 

 were evident signs of large numbers of Vultures resorting 

 to this place to roost; and the goatherd who accompanied 

 me told me he had frequently seen as many as thirty or 

 forty fly out whilst passing with his goats early in the 

 morning. On that occasion I remained till after dark, but 

 only one bird came ; this, no doubt, was on account of my 

 visit being during the breeding-season, when the old birds 

 were busy attending on their young, and the cock bird was 

 probably roosting in the vicinity of the nest. 



2. VULTUR MONACHUS. 



This species is, I think, the commonest Vulture in Sardinia, 

 one or more of these magnificent birds being constantly in 

 sight, floating round at various heights, often looking like a 

 mere dot against the sky. A nest I found, as late as the 1st 

 of June, was built high up in the mountains, on the very top 

 of an old stunted ilex, forming a large shallow platform, about 

 5 feet long by 4 broad. It was roughly composed of dried 

 sticks of considerable size, and lined with a little goatVhair j 

 most of the latter, however, was probably the remnants of the 

 food brought to feed their young. Numerous leg-bones &c. 

 lying about testified to the ample manner in which this had 

 been effected. There was only one young bird in the nest, 

 covered with a very dark brown down ; the primaries and tail- 

 feathers, just beginning to show, were nearly quite black ; its 

 legs, which were very large in proportion to its body, were a 



