396 VULTUEID^ NECROSYRTES 



East London (where it frequents the krantjes along the Buffalo river) 

 and Colesberg, and it has been seen recently near Aliwal North, on 

 the Orange Eiver by Lieut. C. H. T. Whitehead ; in Natal it is 

 only found in the upper districts, having been observed by Eeid 

 near Colenso and by Butler near Newcastle ; according to Kirby 

 it swarms in the eastern Transvaal ; Andersson states that it 

 is not uncommon in Great Namaqualand- and Damaraland; and 

 finally in Mashonaland it has only once been seen by Marshall. 



Habits. This Vulture is seldom seen in large numbers except 

 occasionally round a carcass ; usually they are in pairs and haunt a 

 particular locality. In their habits they are even more filthy than 

 other Vultures, feeding largely on human and other excrement 

 and picking the bones of dead animals abandoned by others. Mr. 

 Gurney states that in the country about the Orange river they prey 

 on the eggs of the Ostrich, which they break by dropping upon them 

 a stone carried up into the air for the purpose. 



This Vulture breeds on a krantz making a large nest of sticks 

 and lining it with hair and wool ; two eggs are laid ; those in the 

 South African Museum from Hopefield and Colesberg are of a dirty 

 white ground colour which is only visible at one end of the egg, 

 the other being entirely blotched and streaked with rich reddish- 

 brown of two shades. In other cases they are said to be almost 

 pure white and unspotted. In shape they are broad ovals 

 measuring on an average 2-70 x 2-30. 



This bird is sometimes said to be only a winter visitor to 

 South Africa, but of this statement I have come across no first-hand 

 evidence ; it certainly nests in the Colony and must I think be con- 

 sidered a resident until further facts are brought forward. 



Genus VI. NECROSYRTES. 



Type. 

 Necrosyrtes, G-loger, Handb. Naturg. i, p. 236 



(1842) N. monachus. 



Bill like that of Neophron, slender, but with a much smaller 

 and more rounded nostril ; crown, sides of the head and throat 

 bare of feathers except for a few scattered bristles ; back of the 

 head and nape of the neck with a thick coating of soft, downy 

 feathers and with ruff of upstanding feathers as is Neophron; 

 primaries and secondaries about equal in length, the difference 

 between them less than an inch ; tail nearly even, not graduated, 

 of twelve feathers ; plumage sooty-brown. 



