EGYPTIAN VULTURE 



PLATE II. 



Neophron percnopterus, .... LINNAEUS. 



Cathartes percnopterus, .... NAUMANN. 



TWO specimens of this species, supposed to be a pair, 

 were observed in the county of Somerset, near the 

 shore of the Bristol Channel, in October 1825. One of the 

 two was obtained ; its companion, which remained a few days 

 in the neighbourhood, escaped. A second example was shot 

 in Essex in September 1868. 



The nests are placed among high and inaccessible preci- 

 pices, in crevices and clefts of mountains. They usually 

 consist of a few sticks on which the birds, writes Lord Lil- 

 ford, " pile up a mass of every imaginable rubbish they can 

 pick up about their favourite haunts heaps of excrements 

 and refuse that abound in and about almost every village in 

 Spain." Whilst Canon Tristram, describing those in Pales- 

 tine, says they consist of a foundation of branches on which 

 are heaped "rags, patches, old slippers, and whole basketsful 

 of camel's-hair and wool." 



The nests are built about the end of March, or April, 

 and the young do not leave them until July, not being able to 

 take flight before that time. 



The eggs vary much in colour, but for the most part they 

 are buffy white in the ground colour, mottled or spotted more 



