VULTURID,E. 



or on the fences which bound the enclosures formed for 

 their cattle. They are to a certain degree domiciled and 

 harmless. The people do them no injury : on the con- 

 trary, they are rather glad to see and encourage them, be- 

 cause they clear the premises of all the offal and filth they 

 can find. In default of other food, they eat frogs, lizards, 

 and snakes. They make their nests among rocks, and the 

 Hottentots assured M. Le Vaillant that they laid three 

 and sometimes four eggs ; but this he had no opportunity 

 of verifying. The eggs are white ; and in Mr. Hewitson's 

 work on British Bird^s eggs, the representation measures 

 two inches and one quarter in length, by one inch and 

 three-quarters in breadth. 



From the vicinity of Tangiers in North Africa, this 

 species passes over to Portugal ; it is common in Spain, 

 building on high rocks about Arragon. In France it in- 

 habits the Alps and Pyrenees, it is found also in Provence. 

 Buffon has recorded its appearance, and received an adult 

 specimen from Norway; it is not therefore at all sur- 

 prising that this bird should have been taken in England. 

 The specimen of this Vulture obtained from Norway was 

 placed by Buffon in the National Cabinet. Le Vaillant 

 compared his Cape specimens with this example received 

 from Norway, and was convinced they were the same 

 species. 



Malta, Sicily, Corfu, and Crete, with other islands of 

 the Mediterranean Sea, are, as might be expected, visited 

 by this Vulture. Bruce, in the appendix to his Travels, says 

 it is frequent in Egypt and about Cairo, where it is called 

 by the Europeans Pharaoh's Hen. In Egypt and Bar- 

 bary it is also called Rachamah. This name, referring to 

 the black and white colours of the adult birds, is said to 

 be derived from Raliama, a name applied to a particular 



