114 Nest of the Bengal Vulture. [Feb^ 



quills grew to an inch and a half long. The size of the body increased 

 rapidly, and the bird supported itself on the knee joints, but could 

 not yet stand at forty days old. 



Its appetite became now no easy matter to satisfy, a pound of 

 flesh at a meal being thought nothing of. At six weeks old the 

 ruff round the neck was clearly discernible, and the quills of the wings 

 were about three inches long. The top and hind part of the head 

 began also to lose the soft thick down which had hitherto clothed it, 

 and presented a naked bluish skin. 



On the 20th January it stood upright for the first time, being 

 about forty-three or forty-four days old. 



At two months old, the back, shoulders, wings, lower part of the 

 neck above, rump and tail were clothed with dark brown feathers, 

 approaching to black ; the thighs were still only clothed with down, 

 as also the sides and belly. The ruff was thickly formed and com- 

 posed of very narrow brown feathers ; the breast partly clothed with 

 narrow pendant feathers of a lighter brown and with the shaft whitish. 

 Head closely covered with a fine soft woolly down of an ashy 

 whiteness, which had again sprung up. Crop covered with pale 

 brownish down. Legs greyish lead color. 



It was now so tame, as to become a perfect nuisance ; for no sooner 

 did it see any person, than it ran towards them screaming and flap- 

 ping its long wings, with the head bent low, and neck drawn in to- 

 wards the body, often pecking at the feet of the person thus inter- 

 cepted. Many were the thumps and kicks the luckless bird received 

 from the servants, who most cordially detested him, as their bare 

 feet were often assailed and cut with the sharp blows of his curved 

 beak. Still, through good and evil, he remained with us, roosting at 

 night sometimes on the top of my bungalow, and at other times 

 wandering to some of the neighbors. Often did I wish that he would 

 take unto himself the wings of the morn and flee away ; for he never 

 entered the house without making it so offensive as to be scarcely 

 bearable. Yet, having brought the evil upon myself, I was bound 

 to bear it with patience, and at length when I almost began to despair 

 of ever getting rid of him, he deserted his usual haunts on the 10th 

 May, being then five months old, and, I am happy to say, I saw him 

 no more. 



I once shot a pair of adult birds, male and female, which were 

 sitting with many others of the same kind, seemingly half gorged, 

 over the carcass of a dead cow ; — the ball passed through the head 

 of the female, into the neck of the male, and thus afforded me a good 

 opportunity of examining them together. 



