VULTURID^. 17 



exhalations. In the British Islands they have appeared only 

 as stragglers ; yet the representatives of two species have 

 been identified on our shores, namely the Griffon and the 

 Egyptian Vultures. 



THE GRIFFON VULTURE. Vultur fulvus. The claim of 

 this bird to rank as British rests upon a single instance of 

 its capture, recorded by Mr. Yarrell, and which occurred in 

 1843, in Ireland. Lord Shannon's keeper purchased the 

 the bird alive from the youth who captured it, for half-a- 

 crown. The bird afterwards dying, was carefully preserved 

 and stuffed, and added to the collection in Trinity College, 

 Dublin. To mention all the localities in Europe and Africa 

 in which this bird has been found would be tedious and 

 extend our notice of it too greatly. The Griffon Vulture 

 lays two eggs, almost white, and if marked at all, only in 

 the most inconsiderable degree, with faint blotches of brown. 



THE EGYPTIAN VULTURE. Neophron percnopterus. In 

 October 1825, a bird of this species was shot on the En- 

 glish shores, and came into the possession of the Rev. A. 

 Mathew, of Kelve in Somersetshire. "When first disco- 

 vered, it was feeding on the carcase of a dead sheep, and 

 had so gorged itself with the carrion as to be unable or 

 unwilling to fly to any great distance at a time ; it was 



c 



