THE VULTURES 2017 



of the family in its circular nostrils. This bird derives its name from 

 ine "" s the plumage being generally entirely black, with chocolate reflections. 



The head is covered with thick velvety down, developed to form a 

 conspicuous patch at the occiput, and on the cheeks more silky and produced into 

 tufts. The naked portions of the head and neck are of a livid flesh color, while 

 the iris is dark brown, the bill black, and the foot yellowish. In total length the 

 bird is about forty-two inches. This vulture inhabits the countries bordering both 

 sides of the Mediterranean, whence it extends eastward to India and China. Unlike 

 the griffon vulture, to be next mentioned, this species is partial to wooded districts; 

 although, as in our plate, both may frequently meet over the same carcass. It 

 nests generally in trees, although failing these on rocks, and builds a bulky nest of 

 boughs lined with twigs, in which a single large white egg, more or less richly 

 marked with red, is laid. L,ike its kin, the black vulture is a bird of heavy and 

 ungraceful form and a generally repulsive appearance; its habits, when not engaged 

 in feeding, being sluggish and inert, its attitude slouching, and its disposition 

 cowardly. It also resembles its allies in feeding entirely upon dead animals and 

 other refuse; and it is these carrion-eating habits which render vultures so invalu- 

 able in tropical countries, where the care bestowed upon sanitary matters appears to 

 vary inversely with the rise of the temperature. Repulsive and hideous looking as 

 are a group of vultures assembled round the carcass of a large animal, and gorging 

 themselves to satiety upon its contents, their appearance is very different as they 

 are seen wheeling in circles at a great height in the blue sky of a tropical noon, and 

 no spectacle is more interesting than to watch the vultures flocking up from all 

 parts when some of their number have detected a prey, and dropped to earth to 

 feast upon it. Much discussion has taken place with regard to the manner in which 

 vultures discover their prey, although it is now ascertained that this is mainly due 

 to their marvelously keen power of sight. On this subject Jerdon writes that he 

 has ' ' known a small piece of fresh meat a fore-quarter of a miserable sheep 

 exposed in the open bare plain where the eye barely discovered a few floating specks 

 in the air high above, and in less than half an hour there would be a number of 

 vultures feeding on it. It is out of the question that smell can have anything to do 

 with this, and we know from experiments that vultures will discover and descend 

 on a stuffed carcass of an animal, while they will neglect one well hidden, although 

 putrid and offensive. I do not mean to assert that their sense of sight is illimit- 

 able, and, in the cases in which I have myself experimented, I do not mean to imply 

 that the very distant birds, that looked like specks, were those to discover the piece 

 of fresh meat; but ever and anon a bird at a much lower elevation, but still very 

 high above the earth, would sail past, keenly urged by hunger to a closer investi- 

 gation and on his espying the morsel, and moving toward it, others at a greater 

 distance, urged by his motions, would descend lower, and on being certified them- 

 selves, perhaps on the ground near, would drop down in a series of oblique plunges 

 till they reached the ground also. That vultures, however, have also a strong 

 sense of smell is undeniable; many experiments are recorded to show this; and I 

 have myself frequently seen them flying closely, and apparently in an excited and 



unusual manner, over a copse or thicket in which a putrefying carcass was placed." 

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