502 NEOPHRON G YPAETUS 



N. ginginianus, which replaces it further east, and which is 

 distinguishable by having the bill entirely yellow, and being 

 smaller in size. 



Like its allies it is a carrion feeder, and as nothing is too 

 offensive for its palate it is, in southern climes, a most useful 

 scavenger. Except when collected round a carcase it is usually 

 to be seen singly or in pairs, never in flocks, and it likewise 

 breeds in scattered pairs. Its nest, which is generally placed 

 on a cliff, seldom on a tree, is a clumsy structure of sticks and 

 grass, lined with grass, rags, or any other available soft material, 

 and its eggs, 2 in number, occasionally however only 1, are 

 deposited in April or May, and are richly blotched with rusty 

 red or dark red on a white or yellowish white ground, and in 

 -size average 2 '5 7 by 2*01. 



GYPAETUS, Storr, 1874. 



714. BEARDED VULTURE. 



GYPAETUS BARBATUS. 



Gijpaetus larlatus (Linn.), Syst. Nat. i. p. 123 (1766) ; Naum. i. p. 180, 

 Taf. 4, 5 ; Gould, B. of E. i. pi. 4 ; Dresser, v. p. 401, pis. 323, 324, 

 325 ; Sharpe, Cat. B. Br. Mus. i. p. 228 ; Blanf. F. Brit. Ind. Birds, 

 iii. p. 328. 



Gypaete des Alpes, French ; Quebranta-huesos, Span. ; Avvoltojo 

 barbuto, Ital. ; Lcimmergeier, German ; Jagnjatnik, Russ. ;. 

 Tochligoturan, Tartar ; Bou-lachiah, Arab. ; Argul, Hindu. 



$ ad. (Spain). Crown and neck creamy white washed with rust- 

 colour ; bristles on the chin, lores, and a broad line passing over and 

 round the eye deep black ; upper parts blackish grey with a metallic 

 gloss, the upper back and wing-coverts with a yellowish central line on 

 the feathers ; quills blackish grey washed with slate-grey ; tail slate-grey 

 margined with blackish brown, and wedge-shaped ; under parts rich light 

 rusty yellow, the throat and neck washed with rusty red ; bill bluish horn, 

 blackish at the tip ; feet plumbeous ; iris pale orange, the sclerotic 

 membrane blood-red. Culmen 3*8, wing 31'0, tail 20'0, tarsus 4-1 inch. 

 Sexes alike. The young bird of the year has the head, neck, and upper 

 parts blackish brown, and the under parts dull rufous buff or brownish 

 grey. 



Hob. The mountains of Southern Europe and North Africa ; 

 is still found in the French and Spanish Pyrenees, but is 

 nearly if not quite extinct in the Alps and Tyrol ; Bosnia, 

 ^Greece, Turkey, the Caucasus, and Asia Minor ; the Himalaya 



