VULTURID^E GYPS 387 



SJiarpe. Cat. B. M. i, p. 9 (1874); BucMc,,. //,/,, 1874, p 358- 

 SJiarpc, ed. Laird's B. S. Afr. pp. 3, 793 (1875-84) ; Gurneu, Ibis 

 1875, p. 90 ; Shelley, Ibis, 1882, p. 237 [Mashonaland] ; Ayres, Ibis] 

 1885, p. 341 [Potchefstroom] ; Shelley, B. S. Afr., p. 154 (1896) 

 Peichenow, Vog. Afr. i, p. 518 (1901). 



Description. Nearly adult. Down on head golden-yellow; ruff 

 yellowish-white ; interscapulars and scapulars dark brown with a 

 conspicuous crescentic edging of fulvous white ; wing-coverts creamy- 

 white, the brown bases showing plainly on the median and greater 

 series, the latter tipped with creamy-white as also are the inner 

 secondaries ; quills black washed with chocolate-brown ; lower back 

 and rump dark brown narrowly edged with creamy-white, upper 

 tail-coverts more broadly; tail black; crop patch deep chocolate- 

 brown ; under surface dull creamy-buff, some of the flank feathers 

 showing brown bases ; under wing-coverts dark brown with cream- 

 coloured tips (Sharpe). 



Iris nearly black ; bill clear horn, darker or almost black in the 

 young ; cere black ; feet black. 



Length (male) 27 ; wing 22-5 ; tail 10-5 ; tarsus 4:-0 (Ayres). 

 Distribution. From Egypt, Abyssinia and the Upper Nile 

 Valley, extending to Natal ; not hitherto noticed in Nyasaland or 

 German east Africa except doubtfully once by Neumann. 



In South Africa this species has been seldom noticed and must 

 be very rare. The following are the recorded localities: Natal, 

 Potchefstroom and Mashonaland (Ayres) ; Ondonga in Ovampoland 

 (Andersson). 



Habits. Eiippell's Vulture does not seem to differ from the 

 common species except in its more marked preference for trees. 

 Mr. Ayres* states that his brother found this species nesting in con- 

 siderable numbers about thirty miles down the Vaal river (from 

 Potchefstroom) in 1884 ; the nests were ponderous structures of 

 rough sticks placed on the tops of large and thorny mimosas ; only 

 one egg was taken, on June 15 ; it was somewhat incubated and 

 was the only one in the nest. It was white sparsely and rather 

 faintly marked with reddish-brown spots of eccentric shape, rather 

 more numerously distributed towards the obtuse end of the egg 

 than elsewhere ; the shell was rough and chalky and the egg 

 measured 3-75 x 2-75. It is possible that the birds noticed nesting 

 on the Limpopo and referred to G. kolbii may really have been 

 of the present species. 



* Capt. Sparrow believes that this account refers to the next species. 



