4 VULTURIDjE. 



the Garden of the Zoological Society, Dublin ; but before 

 arrangements were completed for its transmission it died. 

 The specimen was, by the directions of Lord Shannon, 

 carefully preserved and stuffed, and placed at the disposal 

 of Mr. 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 proportionate 

 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 Ar- 

 ragon, 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 So- 

 ciety 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 at- 

 tack living animals, but appear to prefer carrion and pu- 

 trifying substances ; and when fed to repletion are so 

 sluggish 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 Zoolo- 

 gical 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 frequent open plains in winter. 

 In Sardinia, and in some other countries, this Vulture 



