68 SOUTH-WESTERN ASIA 



middle of February the solitary dull greenish white egg, occasionally blotched 

 with brown at one end. In a favourite situation there may be several nests from 

 100 to 200 feet apart. Sometimes they are in caves, but only in the absence of 

 rocks are they placed on trees. The griffon vulture feeds on carcases, which it 

 discovers from a considerable height, and on which it descends in spirals. Scarcely 

 has one vulture settled on a carcase, when several others, attracted probably by the 

 downward flight of the discoverer, arrive on the spot. Vultures generally alight 

 some little distance from their prey, and then run up in long strides with neck 

 thrust straight out, tail raised and spread, and wings drooping. 



The flight of the griffon vulture is easy and falcon-like, in fact, rather hovering 

 than flying, being often continued for some time without any movement of the 

 wings, and yet without diminution of speed. When descending on its prey, a 

 vulture sometimes utters a twittering note, and on alighting croaks hoarsely. 

 Although apparently awkward, these birds move on the ground with great 

 activity ; and when lamed can run so quickly as often to be overtaken only 

 with difficulty. 



The griffon is the most common of the European vultures, its breeding-area 

 extending from the Mediterranean to Turkestan. It is abundant in Spain, Sardinia, 

 Sicily, south-eastern Europe, Asia Minor, and northern Africa down to Abyssinia, but 

 rare in Italy. In the north of Greece and Turkey it is found breeding, as it is 

 in the Dobrudscha, Bulgaria, Rumania, Bosnia, southern Hungary, Carinthia, and 

 Carniola ; but it also ranges much farther north, a straggler having been observed on 

 one occasion in the south of Ireland. In length it measures about 44 inches. The 

 head and a ruff of feathers round the neck are white, the bare skin of the head 

 and neck being leaden. With the exception of a tuft of narrow pointed white 

 feathers at the base of the neck, and the black wings, the plumage is pale reddish 

 and greyish brown. 



scavenger- The scavenger-vultures are smaller birds, not much larger than 



Vulture. a pheasant, which carry their bodies almost horizontally. They have 

 a slender beak, unfeathered legs, and a bare face and throat, although the hind 

 part of the head is covered with either feathers or down. The common Egyptian 

 species (Neophron percnopterus), which inhabits Africa right down to Cape Colony, 

 ranges from Arabia and Syria to central Asia and India, and from Constantinople 

 to Spain and the Canaries. Stragglers wander still farther, and have occasionally 

 lvacln.-d Britain. The species is rare in Italy and the Danubian countries, but 

 sometimes travels from northern Italy to Switzerland, where it has been found 

 breeding near the Lake of Geneva. In Europe the scavenger-vulture is probably 

 most common in the south of the Balkan Peninsula. Numbers of these birds 

 frequent the Turkish quarter of Constantinople, where they are appreciated and 

 protected, as being of use in clearing up the garbage. They are also well treated 

 in Egypt, where they have been highly appreciated for many centuries. They are 

 excellent street scavengers, feeding upon all kinds of filth ; but they will also kill 

 and eat lizards, mice, rats, and other creeping animals. After they have eaten their 

 fill they sit in dreamy silence in the same place until they get hungry again, 

 when they seek their food in company. Large parties of scavenger-vultures are 

 often seen performing complicated evolutions in the air apparently by way of 



