REVIEW, 507 



royalty is not recognized by the Marathas, whose " Ra'j-gidh " is not 

 a vulture at all, but the great " adjutant " stork. This monster comes 

 last of all birds to the carcase, and even the black vulture must give 

 way to him. Further than that, he does not concern us at present, 

 and we are done with our viiltures.* 



In the present classiticatiou the Lammergeyer {Gypmtus barbatus) is 

 removed from their ranks, and classed with eagles, upon the sufficient 

 ground of his having a fully feathered head. It is, indeed, " some- 

 what doubtful whether this great bird ever attacks living prey, its food 

 consisting chiefly of bones and offal," says our author, who adds that 

 it " rarely descends on a carcase " and quotes Hume for even worse 

 habits. 



One comparatively respectable habit is that " of carrying up large 

 bones and letting them fall from a height in order to break them, and 

 it is said in the Levant to treat tortoises in the same manner." As far 

 as the present writer has been able to observe, the carrying of anything 

 in their claws is very uncommon with the vultures proper, at least in 

 Western India. The young seem to be fed entirely from the crop, 

 as young pigeons are, but not quite in the same way. The young 

 pigeon spoons its food out of the parent's beak with the mandible 

 delicately enough. Vultures are not so nice. But, at any rate, they 

 do not go carrying bits of corpses about, and dropping them into 

 tea-cups and tumblers, as related to new-come visitors on Malabar Hill. 

 Mr. Blanford does not dilate upon this matter, and Jerdon (V"ol. I, 

 n. 6) is very brief about it. But it has some interest in Bombay, 

 where the " Yarn" in question is as old as it is siily ; and. to some of 

 our citizens, offensive. It is a very reasonable function of this Society 

 to put a good big stone over it. 



To return to onr lammergeyer and its diet. Like the true 

 vultures, it has only blunt claws, unsuited for the capture of living 

 prey of any size ; and Mr. Blanford more than doubts the stories of 

 its '* pushing goats and other animals over precipices," so that it is a 

 good deal more stupid and sordid in life than in the good little books. 

 In our province it occurs in Baluchistan and the Kirthar Hills of Sind, 

 and outside it in the southern parts of the Patearctic^ Region, except 



* The late Sir S. Baker has somewhere described a similar succession in Africa. His last 

 bird is the ateat " Marabout " stork, first cousin to our " adjutant." 



