THE VULTURE. Ill 



till he is satisfied ; though, even he fears the great Adju- 

 tant StoTk(Leptoptilusdubius), once so common in Calcutta, 

 but now, alas ! only a memory. The Bengal Vulture is a 

 dull dirty-looking bird of a dingy black, relieved only by 

 some white on the back and under the wing, and this only 

 noticeable in flight. The regal bird, which is not nearly 

 so numerous, is of a richer blackness, and has a bright red 

 head, with a pendent flap on each side, as the insignia of 

 his rank. The young of both are of a dirty brown, and in 

 this resemble our third local species, the Long-billed Vul- 

 ture (Gyps tenuiro?tris), which is, however, easily distin- 

 guishable by its very long and lean head and neck ; it is 

 quite a grey-hound among Vultures. The best place to 

 study vultures and their want of manners is at Dhappa, 

 to which richly-flavoured locality I once made an 

 expedition for that purpose. Here the Bengal Vultures 

 fare somewhat meagrely on the boiled garbage thrown out 

 from the vats after the town carcases of horse and bullock 

 have been boiled down for grease ; and as they are nearly 

 as tame as turkeys they can be easily watched. The Long- 

 billed birds are few and more shy ; they keep aloof, 

 disdaining, as I was told, boiled beef in the hope of a more 

 dainty meal of dead dogs and rats. To these viands the 

 King Vulture appears also more addicted, but I saw none 

 at Dhappa and was told they were rare there and much 

 more wary than the rest. In fact, the first occasion on 

 which I identified his vulturine highness in Calcutta was 

 when two of the species pitched on the maidan, appa- 

 rently to settle some difference of opinion. Since then I 

 have seen one or two others there. 



