4 BRITISH BIRDS. 



VULTUR FULVUS. 

 GRIFFON VULTURE. 



(PLATE 1.) 



Vultur fulvus, Briss. Orn. i. p. 462 (1760) ; Gerini, Orn. Meth. Dig. i. p. 43, pi. x. 



(1767); et auctorum plurimorum Gmelin, Temminck, Gould, Naumann, 



(Gray), (Newton), (Sharpe), &c. 



Vultur trencalos, Bechst. Nat. Deutschl. ii. p. 491 (1805). 

 Vultur castaneus, Steph. Shaw's Gen. Zool. vii. pt. i. p. 29, pi. xii. (1809). 

 Gyps vulgaris, Sav. Syst. Ois. de VEgypte, p. 11 (1810). 

 Vultur leucocephalus, Wolf, Taschenb. i. p. 7 (1810). 

 Vultur vulgaris (Sav), Bonn, et Vieill. Em. Meth. iii. p. 1170 (1823). 

 Vultur persicus, Pall. Zoogr. Rosso-As. i. p. 377 (1826). 

 Vultur albicollis, Brehm, Vog. Deutschl. p. 1010 (1831). 

 Vultur chassefiente, JRupp. Neue Wirbelth. Vog. p. 47 (1835). 

 Gyps fulvus (Brits.}, Gray, Gen. B. i. p. 6 (1844). 

 Vultur fulvus occidentalis, Schlegel, Rev. Crit. p. xii (1844). 

 Gyps occidentalis, Bonap. Consp. i. p. 10 (1850). 

 Vultur segyptius, Licht. Nomencl. Av. p. 1 (1854). 



Vultur fulvus orientalis, Schlegel, Mus. Pays-Bas, ii. Vultures, p. 6 (1862). 

 Gyps hispaniolensis, Shaiye, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. i. p. 6 (1874). 



The claim of the Griffon Vulture to rank as a British bird rests on a 

 single instance of its capture. This specimen was obtained by a youth 

 on the rocks of Cork Harbour, Ireland; and its occurrence was recorded 

 in ' YarrelFs British Birds/ on the authority of Admiral Bowles. In the 

 autumn of 1843 he was visiting Lord Shannon, at Castle Martyr, and 

 there saw the bird, which had been purchased from the lad who captured 

 it. The example was in fully adult plumage and in good condition, and 

 reported as being very wild and savage and in perfect health. The 

 bird was preserved after its death, and placed in the Trinity College 

 Museum, in Dublin. 



The breeding-range of the Griffon Vulture may be said to be the basin 

 of the Mediterranean, Caspian, and Red Seas. Large colonies are 

 found in the Pyrenees and in the mountains of Spain, Sardinia, and 

 Sicily. In the Alps they are rarer, and in the Carpathians still more so; 

 but in the mountains of Bulgaria, Greece, and Asia Minor they are ex- 

 tremely abundant. In the Caucasus and the Southern Urals small colonies 

 are found. St. John states that in Persia they breed in great numbers in 

 the lofty limestone cliffs north of Shiraz ; and Severtzow records it as a 

 resident in Turkestan, where its breeding-range overlaps that of G. hima- 

 layensis. Colonies of Griffons are found in all the mountains of Africa 

 north of the Sahara, from Morocco to the Red Sea, as far south as Nubia. 



In the northern portion of its range it is a partial migrant, stragglers 

 being occasionally found throughout Europe south of the Baltic ; but in 



