274 NATURAL HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



There is now no doubt that the so-called true vultures, i. e., Old World vultures^ 

 are simply modified buzzards or eagles, adapted for an almost exclusive diet of carrion. 

 Much as they have been modified, they still retain all the essential characters of the 

 Falconidae. The partial nakedness of the head and neck, together with the weakness 

 of the feet and bluntness of the claws, are the principal external differences from 

 the other members of the family, while the internal anatomy is very similar in both. 

 Like the other Falconid, they commonly construct bulky nests, or use such nests al- 

 ready constructed by other birds, and this fact, together with the bringing of food to 

 their young, shows a palpable difference in the prehensile power of the foot between 

 these and the American vultures ; for few birds are able to fly with any considerable 

 weight in the bill, and the Accipitres habitually use the feet for this purpose when it 

 becomes necessary to transport food or building-materials. 



In the countries bordering the Mediterranean no less than six species of vulture are 

 of regular if not common occurrence, and four of these occur in southern Europe ; 

 the remaining two, Gyps ruppelli and Gyps qfricanus, are African species, only reach- 

 ing the Mediterranean at the northern limit of their range. Three of the four which 

 occur in Europe are among the largest of living birds of prey, having a length of 

 almost four feet, and an extent of wings of nine or ten feet. They are the crested 

 black-vulture, Vultur monachus (otherwise known as the Arabian or cinereous- vulture), 

 the griffin or fulvous-vulture, Gypsfulvus, and the Nubian or eared-vulture, Otogyps 

 auricularis, sometimes improperly called the sociable vulture. The other species, the 

 Egyptian vulture, Neophron percnopterus, is much smaller, measuring only twenty- 

 five inches in length, thus corresponding in size quite closely with the black-vulture, 

 Cathartes atratus, of America. 



The crested black- vulture, the type and only species of the genus Vultur, is found 

 throughout southern Europe and northern Africa, extending eastward through Asia 

 to China. Its plumage, when adult, is dull, sooty black, with brownish reflections in 

 certain lights, and only relieved by the livid flesh color of the bare skin about the neck, 

 the base of the bill, and the feet. The head and throat are completely covered with 

 short, soft, downy, black feathers, which run down to a point on the throat. The neck, 

 which with this exception is bare, is encircled by a ruff of pointed, downy feathers, 

 longest at the back. Immature birds are much brownei*. The nostrils are very small 

 and almost circular, thus differing from those of all other members of the sub-family. 

 In Europe it seems to be most abundant along the southern Danube and in Spain. 

 Its nest, which is of immense size, is almost invariably placed on a tree, sometimes 

 high up, sometimes not far from the ground, but commonly on the steeper slopes of 

 mountains, or near their summits. The single egg usually laid in each nest is from 

 three and a quarter to four inches in length, and about two and a half to two and 

 two-thirds inches in breadth, and richly spotted and blotched with red. Several nests 

 are frequently found within a few hundred yards of each other. This species is ordi- 

 narily slow and heavy in its action, but spends many hours each day sailing at great 

 heights watching for food. In Sardinia, where it is quite common but, as elsewhere, 

 rather shy and suspicious, Mr. A. B. Brooke found its nest, containing a single young 

 one, on the first of June. The nest " was built high up in the mountains, on the very 

 top of an old stunted ilex, forming a large shallow platform about five feet long by 

 four broad." Of this bird's voracity the same observer gives the following instance : 

 " On one occasion I had placed the skinned carcass of a moderate-sized sheep in an 

 open vineyard surrounded by thick cover, in hope of attracting some birds of prey. 



