18 BEARDED VULTURE. • 
above in having the lower part of the tarsus bare of feathers: this race 
is called G. meridionalis , and is also found in Arabia and the Cape of 
Good Hope. Specimens from the Himalaya mountains do not differ 
from those of Europe, Algeria, and the Caucasus, when adult, but the 
young birds in the Himalaya frequently have the peculiarity of a row 
of small feathers running down the outer side of the middle toe, half 
way down the first joint. This disappears when the bird becomes 
adult. 
I do not know whether this peculiarity also occurs in specimens from 
the Altaic range, and from China. In the Himalayas and Abyssinia it 
appears to be much more familiar in its habits than in Europe, ap- 
proaching some of the Vultures in this respect, probably from being 
less persecuted." 
The adult male and female have the body above of a greyish brown, 
with a white or yellow line upon the middle of a great number of the 
feathers; lower part of the body white, tinged with a more or less 
lively red; top of the head white, bounded at the back by a bluish 
line, which surrounds the eyes, and goes on gradually increasing till 
it is lost among the hair which covers the cere and the nostrils; neck 
of a very light red. Tail feathers ash brown, with the shafts white; 
tail very much graduated. Beak black; iris white, inclined to yellow; 
free edge of the eyelids red; toes livid. The female has the hairs of 
the chin and the tibial feathers shorter than the male and stronger. 
Young bird, first year dark brown, approaching to black on the 
neck, and to reddish grey on the chest and abdomen. After the first 
moult the colour of the feathers becomes lighter, the under part of the 
body redder, and there are spots of the same colour on the mantle. 
The red becomes brighter after and paler before each moult, and some- 
times more or less white when it assumes its adult plumage. It only 
arrives at its perfect plumage at six years old, at least in captivity. 
It is born covered with brown down from head to foot. 
The figure of the bird is from a drawing in the British Museum. 
The egg is from my own collection, and was taken by Dr. Kriiper in 
Greece, in 1865. 
