8 CINEREOUS VULTURE. 
rarely. It is found rarely in Germany, Dalmatia, Denmark, Poland, 
Savoy, Sicily, Austria, and Palestine. A large flock, according to 
M. Dcgland, was observed to pass over the environs of Angers in 
October 1839; a larger number having been observed at the same 
place and season two years before. Both flocks appeared to come 
from the northward, and to wend their way towards the Pyrenees. It 
occurs in India and rarely in Egypt, Nubia, and Algeria, although 
Dr. Ruppell says it is not found in Africa at all. It occurs at Gibraltar. 
Like most of its tribe, the Cinereous Vulture feeds upon carrion. 
M. Temminck says that it does so exclusively, and that it flies away 
in fear from the smallest live animal. Bechstein, on the contrary, 
says that it attacks in the winter, hares, sheep, goats, and even 'deer. 
It can detect its food from a great distance, probably by its acute 
vision equally with its supposed exalted sense of smell. 
The following account of the breeding habits of this bird is from 
Mr. A. S. Cullen, whose ornithological zeal is well known, and who 
has extensive knowledge of the birds in the Dobrudsha: — "This bird 
never lays but one egg. I have found upwards of thirty nests with 
eggs and young, but in no instance did I find more than one egg 
or one young one in one nest. Throughout the Dobrudsha the 
Cinereous Vulture always breeds on trees, never on rocks. The tree 
chosen for the nest is mostly an oak — often a low one. Sometimes, 
however, a wild pear is the tree fixed upon. The eggs vary greatly. 
They are generally of an unspotted white, or white spotted, washed, 
or blotched with rusty brown, or spotted with the colour of dried 
blood. One pretty common variety is of a dirty white, covered with 
moderate-sized blotches of reddish lilac, partly surrounded by an 
irregular rim of light russet brown, and sparingly spotted with small 
spots of dried blood colour. Varieties of a white ground, covered 
entirely with a rich russet brown, in which the white ground only 
appears in small patches, occur now and then, but very rarely. The 
colour in this last variety, and indeed in all russet-coloured examples, 
comes off readily on the application of water; but the colour in the 
lilac or greyish varieties does not come off easily. When blown soon 
after being taken from the nest, the eggs have a strong scent of musk, 
and this clings to them for a long time." 
In the first edition of this work, vol. i., p. 8, I stated, on the 
authority of Degland, that the Cinereous Vulture "builds its nest 
among the most inaccessible rocks. . . .It lays two eggs, pointed alike 
at both ends, of a dirty white, without spots, and a rough surface." 
Mr. Farman ("Ibis," vol. iv., N.S., pp. 407-8) gives the same account 
as Mr. Cullen of the locality in which the nest is built, and he adds 
