GESNERIAN VULTUREo 85 



" This bird (says he) is met with in some places 

 in the south of Syria and in Barbary, but is no- 

 where so frequent as in Egypt, and about Cairo. 

 It is called by the Europeans Poule de Faraone, 

 the hen or the bird of Pharaoh. It is a vulture of 

 the lesser kind, the hen being not much larger 

 than our rook or crow, though by the length of its 

 wings, and the erect manner in which it carries 

 its head, it appears considerably larger. In Egypt 

 and all over Barbary it is called Rachamah. The 

 point of the beak of this bird is black, very sharp 

 and strong for about three quarters of an inch, it 

 is then covered by a yellow fleshy membrane, 

 which clothes it as it were both above and below, 

 as likewise the forepart of the head and throat, and 

 ends in a sharp point before, nearly opposite to 

 where the neck joins the breast 5 this membrane is 

 wrinkled, and has a few hairs growing thinly scat- 

 tered upon the lower part of it : it has large open 

 nostrils, and prodigious large ears, which are not 

 covered by any feathers whatever: the body is 

 perfect white from the middle of the head, where 

 it joins the yellow membrane, down to the tail : the 

 large feathers of its wing are black; they are six 

 in number: the lesser feathers are three, of an iron- 

 grey, lighter towards the middle, and these are 

 covered with three others lesser still, but of the same 

 form, of an iron rusty colour: those feathers that 

 cover the large wing-feathers are at the top for 

 about an inch and quarter of an iron-grey, but 

 the bottom is pure white: the tail is broad and 

 thick above, and draws to a point at the bottom ; 

 it is not composed of large feathers, and is not half 



