250 Rev. H. B. Tristram on the Ornithology of Palestine. 



amiss to it ; and I once surprised a pair in the act of gorging at 

 a heap of spoilt figs. The Neophron is strictly migratory, and 

 begins to return about the end of March, and by the middle of 

 April the country is full of them. The first egg we obtained was 

 laid near the plain of Gennesaret on April 1st, and our last pair 

 oi fresh eggs were found on May 24th, in the mountainous region 

 near Hermon. The nests, though always in the cliff's, were 

 generally low down, and comparatively easy of access, in this 

 respect difi'ering very decidedly from the Griff'ons. I took an 

 eg^ from one nest in an arched passage through the rocks, close 

 to the village of Mejdel, and so little concealed that every passer- 

 by could see it, and a child might have climbed up to it. On 

 the whole, it appears to be more prolific in Palestine than in 

 North Africa ; for while in the Atlas a single egg was the fre- 

 quent complement, out of upwards of fifty nests which we took 

 in this expedition I do not remember one in which the bird was 

 actually sitting on a solitary egg. Yet in no instance did we 

 find more than a pair of eggs. As is observed in the case of the 

 Golden Eagle, the eggs are rarely alike, one being invariably 

 much more richly coloured than the other, though before the 

 process of incubation has been long continued, both become alike 

 sodden and discoloured by filth. There is a rich variety in the 

 colouring of the fresh eggs, from a deep russet-red, uniformly 

 diff'used over the whole surface, to a paler red, like the Pere- 

 grine^s. Sometimes they are mottled and blotched like the 

 Honey-Buzzard's or the Sparrow- Hawk's; at others spotted as 

 faintly as the Kites', and even almost a pure white. There is 

 no green tissue inside. The nest is an enormous congeries of 

 sticks, clods of turf, bullocks' ribs, pieces of sheepskin, old rags, 

 and whatever else the neighbourhood of a village or camp may 

 aff'ord, and is generally somewhat depressed in the centre. Fre- 

 quently solitary birds were noticed in April in the dark imma- 

 ture plumage, proving that the white plumage is not attained 

 till the third year. The Neophron is more plentiful in Gilead 

 and Moab than elsewhere ; at least we obtained more nests in 

 those regions, to which the birds seem to be attracted by the 

 enormous flocks and herds of the Bedouin, on the ordure of 

 which they largely feed. 



