MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 



Off 



ORNITHOLOGY. 



I. 



ORNITHOLOGICAL research is a pursuit which I have often 

 followed very keenly, and though I am well aware how slight 

 and unimportant this collection of notes is, I solace myself 

 with the hope that under much mud and sand there may lie a 

 grain of gold which more able naturalists than I may consider 

 valuable and capable of being turned to account. 



I will begin by devoting a few words to the group of the 

 Raptorial birds. 



I have had frequent opportunities of both seeing and 

 studying that huge and imposing bird the Cinereous Vulture 

 ( Vultur drier eus) in a state of freedom, and first met with 

 it on a very mild snowless December day shortly before 

 Christmas. I was shooting foxes, with some other gentlemen, 

 in the large forest of St. Kiraly, a few miles from the village 

 of Godollo in Central Hungary, when, just as the beaters were 

 entering the cover, a large bird of prey rose slowly from the 

 ground, and flying into the wood about two hundred paces 

 from my post vanished from my sight. I knew that it was a 



