VULTURID3] 



NEOPHRON 



395 



and primaries black, the latter edged along the base of the outer 

 web with ashy ; secondaries very dark brown also ashy along the 

 middle portion of the outer web but becoming brown again at the 

 tips. 



Iris dark brown in young, deep red in adult ; bill pale horny- 

 brown ; cere and naked portions of the head and neck yellow to 

 orange ; legs dirty yellow ; claws horny-brown. 



Length 31 ; wing 21-25 ; tail 11-0 ; culmen 3-25 ; tarsus 3-80. 



Young birds are at first blackish-brown ; the scattered down on 

 the head and throat black ; pale tips begin gradually to appear on 

 the neck, heckles, and breast-feathers giving a speckled appearance ; 

 the bill is dark, the naked parts of the head and throat grey ; legs 



FIG. 137. Neophron percnopterus. x . 



and feet ashy. The change to the adult plumage is gradual. In 

 confinement the full plumage is not attained till the third year. 



Distribution. The Egyptian Vulture is found throughout 

 southern Europe and has been twice killed in England ; it extends 

 eastwards through Persia to north-west India. It inhabits north 

 Africa from Morocco to the Bed Sea and thence down the eastern 

 side of that continent to Cape Colony. It is not known from west 

 Africa. 



Within our limits this Vulture appears to be widely distributed 

 though nowhere very common ; in the Colony it is stated to have 

 bred at Hopefield in the Malmesbury district, near Swellendam, at 



