1237 



VULTURIDyE. 



VTJLTURID^. 



1238 



Vallur fitlvus, the Griffon Vulture, is Le GrifFou of the French ; 

 Weisskbpfiger Geier of the Germans; Avoltoio di Color Castagno of 

 the Italians. 



Head and neck covered with close-set, short, white, downy feathers ; 

 lower part of the neck surrounded with a ruff of long, slender, white 

 feathers, sometimes with a slight tinge. On the middle of the breast 

 a space furnished with white down. The whole of the body, the 

 wings, and the origin of the tail yellow-brown or Isabella colour; 

 quills and tail-feathers blackish-brown; beak livid-yellow, cere darker;* 

 iris hazel ; feet gray or light-brown. Total length exceeding four feet. 



The female is larger than the male. 



The young have a whitish down varied with brown on the head 

 and neck ; the rest of the body very bright yellow, marked with great 

 spots of gray or white. 



It is a native of the mountainous parts of the north of Europe, 

 Silesia, the Tyrol, Dalmatia (where it is very numerous), Spain 

 (abundant near Gibraltar), the Alps, the Pyrenees, Turkey, the Grecian 

 Archipelago, the north of Persia, and the north of Africa. 



Head of Griffon Vulture. 



Griffon Vulture (Tulttir futrm). 



The nert of this Vulture b generally formed upon the ost elevated 

 and inaccessible rocks, but it often build, on the highest forest-trees 

 and in Sardinia on the loftiest oaks, where the nest of brushwood and 

 oota u more than three feet in diameter. The eggs, which are 

 two in number, though some state that it a y lays 



in numer, oug o 



many as four, are of dull-greenish or grayish-white, slightly 

 marked with pale reddish spots, and with a rough surface. !&& 

 CSta^TwK it feeds^rincipally upon dead = sses, to which 

 it is frequently attracted in very considerable numbers. Wh 

 hwonceVle a lodgment upon it. prey.it rarely V*-***" 

 while a morsel of flesh remain-, so that it ,s not uncommon to see 

 perched upon a putrefying corpse for several successive days. ] 

 Temminck describes it as flesh-coloured. 



lever attempts to carry off a portion even to satisfy its young, but 

 eeda them by disgorging the half-digested morsel from its maw. 

 Sometimes, but very rarely, it makes its prey of living victims, and 

 even then of such only as are incapable of offering the smallest resist- 

 ance ; for in a contest for superiority it has not that advantage which 

 s possessed by the Falcon tribes, of lacerating its enemy with its 

 alons, and must therefore rely upon its beak alone. It is only how- 

 sver when no other mode of satiating its appetite presents itself, that 

 t has recourse to the destruction of other animals for its subsistence. 

 After feeding, it is seen fixed for hours in one unvaried posture, 

 >atiently waiting until the work of digestion is completed, and the 

 stimulus of hunger is renewed, to enable and to urge it to mount 

 again into the upper regions of the air, and fly about in quest of its 

 necessary food. If violently disturbed after a full meal, it is incapable 

 'f flight until it has disgorged the contents of its stomach ; lightened 

 if which, and freed from their debilitating effects, it is immediately in 

 a condition to soar to such a pitch as, in spite of its magnitude, to 

 >ecome invisible to human sight. In captivity it seems to have no 

 other desire than that of obtaining its regular supply of food. So 

 ong as that is afforded it, it manifests a perfect iudifference to the 

 rircumstances in which it is placed." (Bennett.) 



V, cinereus appears to be the Vautour Arrian and Vautour Noir of 

 ;he French ; Cinereous or Ash- Vulture and Bengal Vulture of Latham ; 

 and Grauer Geier of the Germans. It is a native of Europe. It is 

 found in lofty mountains, and the vast forests of Hungary, the Tyrol, 

 and the Pyrenees; the south of Spain and Italy; accidentally in 

 Dalmatia; more frequently in Sardinia; in Sicily; rarely in Italy, 

 and never in the forests ; very accidentally in Germany. 



Its food consists of dead animals and carrion, but never of living 

 animals, of which it shows fear; the least animal, says Temminck, 

 terrifies it. 



This is the genus Gyps of Savigny. Mr. Gould, in his great work 

 on the ' Birds of Europe,' notices a deviation in this species from the 

 true or more typical vultures, manifested in the partially bare neck, 

 open ears, curved claws, and powerful beak. 



Bengal Vulture (Vullur (Qyps) cinereiu). 



V.-Ponilcerianua, the Pondicherry Vulture. The adult is about the 

 size of a goose ; a long loose naked membrane or wattle takes its 

 origin about an inch below the meatus auditorius, and widens into a 

 rounded form in the middle; the whole head and neck naked and 

 flesh-coloured, but there are some short scattered hairs thereon ; crop 



