14 BEARDED VULTURE. 
we can plainly hear the stormy rush and almost metallic resonance of 
its wings. It circles round a market place, where animals are usually 
killed, or follows the camp and tracks of armies with other birds of 
prey. Thus it was not observed during the first months of our residence 
in the Bogos lands; but when the Abyssinian troops arrived it came 
with them> and disappeared with them as they marched onwards. 
During the march of King Theodore against the Galas, dozens of 
these birds were seen as constant followers of the troops. They kept 
together, however, more in pairs with their young ones, and did not 
mix with other Vultures and Ravens. After feeding, these birds rest 
either on a point of rock or raise themselves, especially in fine weather, 
in spiral circles high in the air. I never saw them build. The young 
ones pipe when they fly like Buzzards. 
I have not been able to make any observations on their nidification. 
The time of hatching is in the middle of summer. Some ornithologists 
have concluded that there are two kinds of Bearded Vulture, one of a 
rusty colour underneath, and another white. As is well known, how- 
ever, the rusty colour, which is deep in front of the neck and breast, 
may be in a great measure removed by simply washing and rubbing, 
as Drs. Murs, Meves, and myself have proved. Meves considers this 
mechanically attracted colour as resulting from ferruginous springs in 
which the birds bathe; and De Murs believes it, as Gypaetus originally 
lays white eggs, which are coloured during incubation — a view which 
Hartmann seems to close in with. 
We have, indeed, never seen a Bearded Vulture with clear white 
underparts, but have constantly found that the red colour disappeared 
in moulting, and was not replaced. 
The Bearded Vulture of the south is to be distinguished from that 
of the north and east by its rather smaller size, and the more lively 
colouring of the neck and under parts; and also, and principally, by 
the absence of the posterior tarsal feathers, and their shortness (not 
reaching to the toes) in front. 
What Tschudi tells us in his "Animal Life of the Alpine World" 
of the habits of the Bearded Vulture, I do not find confirmed in 
Africa. On the contrary, they differ greatly. This bird does not readily 
become tame. It does, indeed, soon learn to know its master, but re- 
mains ever a melancholy, grave, and quiet bird, allowing itself to be 
fed with flesh and bones for years in a cramped dwelling. 
It cares little for birds or fish, and would remain hungry all day 
rather than disturb poultry or pigeons. It crunches bones with amazing 
ease. Smaller animals it swallows whole, and when obliged to put up 
with birds it first tries to break them up and open them." 
