VUL TUR NEOPHRON 501 



Hal. Southern Europe ; a rare straggler to the northern 

 parts of Continental Europe ; Xorth Africa, rarer in the western 

 portions, in East Africa south to Nubia ; Asia Minor and Central 

 Asia to India and China. 



In habits it resembles the Griffon, and like that bird is a 

 carrion eater. It breeds about the same time as the Griffon, 

 but unlike that species almost always places its nest in a tree, 

 "more seldom on a cliff. The riest is a bulky structure of boughs 

 and sticks, lined with small twigs and wool, and one egg is 

 deposited, very rarely two, which is white, richly marked with 

 dark red, and the average size is 3'51 by 276. Eggs from 

 Eastern Europe are as a rule less richly marked than those from 

 Spain. 



NEOPHRON, Savigny, 1810. 



713. EGYPTIAN VULTURE. 



NEOPHRON PERCNOPTERUS. 



Neophron percnopterus (Linn.), Syst. Nat. i. p. 123 (1766); (Naiim.) i. 

 p. 170, Taf. 3 ; (Hewitson), i. p. 5. pi. 2 ; Gould, B. of E. i. pi. 3 ; 

 Newton, i. p. 6 ; Dresser, v. p. 391, pi. 322 ; Sharpe, Cat. B. Br. 

 Mus. i. p. 17 ; Blanford, F. Brit. Incl. Birds, iii. p. 327 ; Saunders, 

 p. 313 ; Lilford, i. p. 83, pi. 40. 



Vautour d'Egypte, French ; Abutre, Portug. ; Alimoclio, Span. ; 

 Capovacca/o, Ital. ; Schmutziger Aasvogel, German ; Stervatnik, 

 Buss. ; Edkhma, Arab. ; Bekhama, Moor. ; Ak-laba, Turk. ; 

 Kusgun, Tartar. 



< ad. (Spain). General colour white, tinged with creamy buff ; fore- 

 part of the head and throat bare ; feathers on the occiput and back of the 

 neck elongated, lanceolate, tinged with creamy buff ; primaries blackish 

 margined with greyish buff on the outer web ; secondaries varied, dark 

 brown and buff ; tail white ; bare part of the head yellow ; beak yellow 

 at the base, otherwise dusky blackish ; legs and feet dark flesh-colour, 

 claws black ; iris deep red. Culmen 2'8, wing 19'2, tail 10*0, tarsus 3'4 

 inch. Sexes alike. The young bird is blackish brown, the feathers tipped 

 with fulvous, the bare part of the head with scattered blackish brown 

 tufts ; bare portions of the head livid ; bill dusky yellowish at the base ; 

 legs livid greyish ; iris brown. 



Hob. Southern Europe, of rare occurrence north of the 

 Alps; has twice occurred in England; Madeira, the Canaries, 

 and Cape Verde Islands ; Africa south to the Cape of Good 

 Hope ; Asia east to Western India. There it meets with. 



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