832 NOTES ON SOME BIRDS COLLECTED ON THE NILGHIRIS 
Vultures may be congregated near a body, only two or three, 
seldom indeed as many as half a dozen, of this species, will be 
found with the mob, At other times they are met with singly 
or in pairs. 
On two oceasions I have come across this Vulture feeding 
on carrion hid away in the depth of heavy forest. Once was 
in Burmah, when in company with Mr. A. L. Hough, 
ascending the Pakchan, we came across one tearing at the 
body of a freshly killed muggur. In this case the body lay 
on a tiny sandbank abutting on the bank of the stream; and, 
although visible from the canoes, was so overshadowed by the 
dense vegetation growing on the bank as to be, I should 
think, quite invisible from a height of even five or six feet. 
The other occasion was on the Nilghiris; walking up the bed 
of a stream in a thick shola, I flushed one off the putrid remains 
of what appeared to be the body of a dog or jackal ; but as the 
body was partially submerged, and the smell intolerable, I did 
not stop to make sure. The repast to that Vulture was no 
doubt extremely nice to judge from the reluctance with which 
it quitted it. It was facing me, and must have seen me when I 
was 30 yards away; yet I approached within ten yards and 
then stood, but it took no apparent notice of me. But on one 
of my dogs putting in an appearance, it (the Vulture and not 
the dog) took a couple of ungainly hops towards me. Rising 
with a lumbering flight it passed over my head at a height of 
about six feet, into the open, through a break in the trees. 
In my trip through the Wynaad and part of Mysore I saw 
it but twice to identify it with certainty—once at Goodalore 
and once at Sultan’s Battery. 
I too have noticed what Jerdon says about the fear shown 
by Gyps bengalensis and G. indicus of this species. 
4.—Gyps indicus, Scop. The Long-billed Brown 
Vulture. 
5.—Pseudogyps bengalensis, Gm. The White-backed 
Vulture. 
Both these species* occur on the Nilghiris and its slopes, and 
through the Wynaad. The former is, comparatively, not very 
common, especially on the Nilghiris, where I have only noticed 
it occasionally. The latter is abundant every where. 
* I think it very doubtful whether the Nilghiri bird is indicus; it is more probably 
pallescens.—Lp., 8. F, 
