VULTURES. 259 



griffon, when it can obtain sufficient food, is a perfect glutton, Canon Tristram 

 mentioning that he has seen one of these birds which was too gorged to stand, 

 continue its feast while lying on its side. Griffon vultures, both of the common 

 species and the kind confined to Africa, are exceedingly abundant in Abyssinia. 



The long-billed vulture, which is found all over India, although it does not 

 enter villages and towns, is remarkable for always building in large societies, which 

 commonly include from ten to thirty pairs of birds. Such breeding-places are 

 always situated on ledges of cliffs ; and one near Ajmir described by Mr. Hume 

 " was a cliff-face some one hundred feet high by three hundred wide, all broken up 

 into irregular ledges, of which the highest overhung all the rest. In amongst the 

 ledges were a few dwarf banyan trees, whose long bare roots and rootlets hung 

 down, here and there, in dense, grey giant skeins. All the ledges, but the upper- 

 most, when looked at from below, seemed garnished with heavy white fringes, the 

 white droppings of the birds having run down in close parallel lines in a wonder- 

 fully symmetrical fashion over the weather-smoothed edges of the terraces. Seen 

 from a distance, the whole cliff-face seemed mottled with huge patches of white- 

 wash. Bleached bones and dusky quills strewed every little plateau, and nestled 

 in every cranny." The young found at the end of March are described as present- 

 ing the appearance of huge unwieldy masses of yellow down, and were so fat that 

 they could not support themselves on their feet for more than a few moments. 

 According to native reports, they do not leave the breeding-place until three or 

 four months old. 

 White-Backed India and Africa each possess a vulture, agreeing with the long- 



Vuitures. billed griffon in having a white patch on the rump and lower back, 

 but differing in having only twelve tail-feathers, on which account they are 

 assigned to a separate genus — Pseudogyps. The Indian species (P. bengalensis) 

 has the rest of the plumage nearly black, while in P. africanus it is browner. The 

 former is the most common vulture in India, where it is found in immense numbers, 

 both in the open country and in towns ; it likewise extends to Burma and Malacca. 

 Collecting round the carcase of every dead animal in numbers, these vultures may 

 also at times be seen perched singly on a dead human body floating down the 

 Ganges with their wings widely spread in order to steady themselves while they 

 enjoy their ghastly meal. They breed both on rocks and in large trees, and, like 

 all other Indian vultures^ lay but one egg in a season. 



Far less common than the members of the precedino; efenera are 

 Eared Vultures. • j? i i 1 . 



the two species or eared vultures, so termed on account of the large 



naked fleshy lappets on either side of the neck. In addition to these lappets, and 

 other fleshy folds about the head, these vultures are distinguished by the completely 

 bare head, and by the length of the middle toe being less than that of the meta- 

 tarsus. Of the two kinds, the African eared vulture {Otogyps auricularis), which 

 ranges from Abyssinia to the Cape, and occasionally visits the south of Europe, is 

 considerably the larger, and is, indeed, only inferior in size to the condor, attaining 

 a length of some 45 inches ; the general colour of its plumage is brown, and the 

 inner surface of the thigh is feathered. In the smaller Pondicherry vulture 

 (0. calvus), on the other hand, the inner surface of the thigh is naked, and the 

 plumage black ; hence it is often spoken of as the black vulture, although that 



