NORTHERN SOCIABLE VULTURE. 5 
bird will often carry away a body which does not weigh more than 
twenty pounds. It drives away all intruders with blows of its wings, 
and tears off and devours greedily large strips of skin and flesh. After 
its meal the Eared Vulture seeks a means of quenching its thirst, and 
Hartmann says he has observed them up to their necks in water. It 
then plumes its feathers and suns itself for a long time, lying on the 
sand or sitting on an elevated spot, frequently opening one or both 
wings, which it allows to droop lazily, while the neck is slightly drawn 
in. It then retires to an elevated rock, where it rests for a much longer 
time. On rising from the ground it is obliged to run forward with 
springs and bounds till its strong wings catch the wind, which is ac- 
companied by a dull, rushing sound. These birds, powerful as they 
are, can endure hunger for many days; but they are then able to de- 
vour enormous quantities of food. I never found bones in their crops. 
They are easily accustomed to captivity, but remain mostly for a long 
time mournful guests, whom the keepers cannot always trust. The 
beautiful, composed, and haughty eye follows the visitor and all his 
movements unceasingly, without the creature altering its position. If 
we only see caricatures of the Eared Vulture in our zoological 
museums, it is because of the impossibility of preserving the head and 
neck in its original beauty. 
The bluish flesh-colour of the skin of the head is mostly quite bare, 
and only here and there sprinkled with furry down. Over the back 
of the head and neck thick folds of skin, which can be moved at 
pleasure, lie close to each other in undulating rows. The flap of skin 
which hangs down from the ear on the side of the neck is often con- 
siderably enlarged and unattached below. I think I have observed this 
caruncular appendage much larger in captivity. When in perfect con- 
dition, the skin of the head is visibly swollen or raised up, and is of 
a darker colour and more varied. The folds of skin disappear partly 
in the raising and throwing forward of the neck. The young bird 
shows a longer and narrower ruff round the neck, and a thicker covering 
of feathers over the lower part of the body. There is a specimen in 
the Stuttgard Museum which has the base of the neck and the inter- 
scapular feathers of a pale greyish blue, as well as some of the small 
wing coverts partly so. The fawn-coloured brown of the feathers on 
the crop visibly advances further to the front of the neck; the sides 
of the neck in front down to the breast bone are, as in the Cinereous 
Vulture, covered with long whitish down." 
Some interesting remarks about this bird, will also be found in Mr. 
Gurney's "Raptorial Birds in the Norwich Museum." 
