2O24 



THE DIURNAL BIRDS OF PREY 



particular trees, have a semireligious custom of tearing a strip off their clothes to 

 hang thereon, and the tree soon becomes loaded with rags and tatters. These are 

 a perfect Godsend to the neophrons of the neighborhood, whom I have more than 

 once watched robbing these local shrines of their trophies by the score. Sometimes 

 the rags of various colors are laid out neatly in the nest, as if an attempt had been 

 made to please the eye; sometimes they are irregularly jumbled up with the mate- 



PII.EATED VULTURE. 

 (One-fourth natural size.) 



rials of the nest." The eggs, which are generally laid in the latter part of March, 

 are commonly two in number, although there may be three. In size, color, and 

 texture specimens differ much; but they are generally chalky, and vary from pure 

 grayish or reddish white, with a few specks at one end, to a uniform dingy blood- 

 red hue. The Egyptian vulture, or " Pharaoh's chicken," is well represented on 

 the ancient sculptures of the country from which it takes its name, and is the bird 



