4 VULTUfttM. 



bird to Dr. Ball for the collection in the Garden of the 

 Zoological Society, Dublin ; but before arrangements 

 were completed for its transmission it died. The speci- 

 men was, by the directions of Lord Shannon, carefully 

 preserved and stuffed, and placed at the disposal of Dr. 

 Ball, who has added it to the collection in Trinity 

 College, Dublin. It is in adult plumage." 



This species of Vulture, of large size and proportion- 

 ate strength, possesses also great sustaining powers of 

 flight, and has, as might be expected, a very extended 

 geographical range. It is found in Germany, France, 

 on the Pyrenees, and in Spain, particularly the rocky 

 country about Aragon, and is common both there and at 

 Gibraltar. It is included by Polydore Roux in his Birds 

 of Provence, and is found in Sardinia, Italy, Silesia, 

 Dalmatia, Albania, the Grecian Archipelago and Candia. 

 The Zoological Society of London possess specimens 

 sent from Tangiers and Tunis, and it is known to 

 inhabit Algeria, Egypt, and other parts of the African 

 Continent. 



It is one of the characters of the Vultures generally, 

 that unless pressed by extreme hunger, they seldom attack 

 living animals, but appear to prefer carrion and putre- 

 fying substances ; and when fed to repletion are so slug- 

 gish and inactive as to be easily captured. The late 

 Drummond Hay, Esq., the representative of the British 

 Government at Tangiers, in a communication to the 

 Zoological Society of London on the Birds of North 

 Africa, says of this Vulture, " I shot this bird as he 

 rose heavily from the top of a high rock, near Cape 

 Spartel on the north coast, where he had been gorging 

 himself with the body of a dead kid. The species is 

 rare in these parts." They build on high and almost 

 inaccessible rocks, but are observed to descend to and 



