52 



VERTEBRATA. 



GROOP OP VULTURES. 



The Griffon Vulture, or Tawny Vulture, is the Common Vulture of Europe, V. fuivus : 

 tlie head and neck are covered with close-set, short, white, downy feathers ; the h^wer part of the 

 neck is surrounded with a ruft" of long, slender, white feathers, sometimes with a slight yellow 

 tinge ; on the middle of the breast is a space furnished with white down. The whole of the body, 

 the wings, and the origin of the tail, yellow-brown or Isabella color ; quills and tail-feathers 

 hlaidcisli-brown ; total length exceeding four feet. The female is larger than the male. 



The nest of this species is generally formed upon the most elevated rocks, but it often builds 

 on the highest forest trees, and in Sardinia on the loftiest oaks, where the nest of brushwood and 

 roots is more than three feet in diameter. The eggs, which are generally two in number, are of 

 a dull greenish or grayish-white, slightly marked witb pale reddish spots, and with a rough sur- 

 face. Like all the other true vultures, it feeds principally npon dead carcasses, to which it is fre- 

 quently attracted in very considerable numbers. AYhen it has once made a lodgment upon its 

 prey, it rarely quits the banquet while a morsel of flesh remains, so that it is not nncommon to 

 see it perched upon a putrefying corpse for several successive days. It never attempts to carry 

 off a portion even to satisfy its young, but feeds them by disgorging the half-digested morsel from 

 its maw. Sometimes, but very rarely, it makes its prey of living victims, and even then of such 

 only as are incapable of offering the smallest resistance ; for in a contest for superiority it has not 

 that advantage which is possessed by the falcon tribes, of lacerating its enemy wntli its talons, and 

 must therefore rely upon its beak alone. It is only, howev^er, when no other mode of satiating 

 its appetite presents itself, that it has recourse to the destruction of other animals for its subsist- 

 ence. After feeding, it is seen fixed for hours in one unvaried posture, patiently waiting until the 

 work of digestion is completed and the stimulus of hunger is renewed, to enable and to urge it 

 to mount again into the upper regions of the air, and fly about in quest of its necessary food. If 

 violently disturbed after a full meal, it is incapable of flight until it has disgorged the contents of 

 its stomach ; lightened of which, and freed from their debilitating effects, it is immediately in a 

 condition to soar to such a pitch as, in spite of its magnitude, to become invisible to human sight. 

 In captivity it seems to have no other desire than that of obtaining its regular supply of food. So 

 long as that is afforded, it manifests a perfect indifference to the circumstances in which it is 

 placed. 



The Brown Vulture, F. cinereus, the Vautour Arrian and Vautour JVoir of the French ; Cin- 

 ereous or Ash Vulture, and Bengal Vulture of Latham ; the Graucr Geier of the Germans, is a 



