4 VULTURIDJE. 



greater distance, observes his neighbour's movements, and 

 follows his course. A third, still further removed, follows 

 the flight of the second ; he is traced by another ; and so a 

 perpetual succession is kept up as long as a morsel of food 

 remains over which to consort." 



Mr. Osbert Salvin, also writing of this species in a part 

 of the Eastern Atlas, where it was very abundant, occupying 

 with its nests every available ledge in some extensive ranges 

 of rocks (Ibis, 1859, p. 179), says : " The eggs appear to 

 be laid in the month of February, as most of the nests con- 

 tained young in the beginning of April. During the time of 

 incubation, one of the parent birds sits constantly, and if 

 frightened off, returns immediately. The nest is composed 

 almost entirely of sticks, which are used in greater or less 

 abundance, as the situation requires. The eggs obtained from 

 wild birds generally show indications of natural colouring, 

 in addition to the blood and dirt with which they are usually 

 stained. This colouring is dispersed in faint spots of a 

 reddish hue, sometimes all over the egg, but generally at the 

 larger or smaller end." He adds, that the young " on 

 emerging from the egg is covered with white down; the 

 sides are dark." 



In Spain, Lord Lilford (Ibis, 1865, p. 168) mentions his 

 having seen on the banks of the Guadalquivir, below Seville, 

 a party of at least forty of these birds regaling upon a dead 

 horse. " I have since," he adds, " met with this Vulture in 

 all parts of Spain which I have visited, in great abundance, 

 particularly in April, 1864, in the Sierra de la Palmitera, 

 near Marbella, where we were encamped for two days in 

 pursuit of Ibex." More lately, Mr. Howard Saunders, writ- 

 ing of the birds of Southern Spain, states (Ibis, 1871, 

 p. 56), " This is the common Vulture of the country, breeding 

 in small colonies in every mountain-range. It lays early in 

 March, as I found some young birds in the first week of 

 April. The eggs (usually one, but occasionally two) have 

 seldom any genuine marking ; but I know of a colony of six 

 where the eggs are always somewhat spotted and streaked." 



Lack of space renders it impossible here to quote the 



