386 



In Northern Africa it is, though not uncommon, nowhere numerous. According to Captain 



Shelley " it ranges throughout Egypt and Nubia, but is nowhere abundant. It may occasionally 



be seen on the sandbanks, either singly or, more frequently, in company with flocks of Gyps 



fiilvas." Heuglin writes that it is " a very rare straggler, and that he only once met with it, in 



October 1861, near Beni-Suef." 



In Algeria it is, according to Loche, not common, and only met with singly or in pairs. From 

 here it is said to extend down to the neighbourhood of Cape-Coast Castle, where Mr. Fraser 

 records it as living in the smaller trees near the houses (1). Passing to the eastward we find 

 it in India ; and Captain Beavan states that it appears regularly every cold season at Umballah, 

 which is the only station in the North-west Provinces of India where he ever noticed it. It is 

 not common. Colonel Tytler, however, was lucky enough to secure a pair of this fine bird at 

 Umballah in the cold weather of 1865-66. Dr. Jerdon, in his supplementary notes to the ' Birds 

 of India' (Ibis, 1871, p. 234), writes that he found this fine Vulture by no means rare throughout 

 the greater part of the North-west Provinces, becoming more common in the country north-west 

 of Delhi in the cold weather. It breeds, occasionally at all events, on trees in the outer ranges 

 of the Himalayas. Mr. Hume, in his ' Rough Notes,' writes as follows : — " I have been unable 

 to obtain certain information as to the breeding of this noble bird within our limits ; but it most 

 certainly does breed in the Himalayas, as I have seen a perfect egg which was extracted from the 

 oviduct of a female shot in March 1865 between Dalhousie and Murree. Nests are likely to be 

 found anywhere in precipitous places in the Himalayas, or perhaps in large trees in the Sub- 

 Himalayan ranges, west of the Ganges. Eastward of this the species seems to have far fewer 

 representatives, though Dr. Jerdon has seen it at Darjeeling, and specimens have been obtained 

 in Assam and Bhotan." In addition to this, Mr. A. O. Hume sends us the following particu 

 lars : — " Generally I may summarize the distribution of this species in India thus. It occurs 

 throughout the Punjaub, North-west Provinces, Oudh, and Rajpootana, north-west of the 

 Avavalli hills during the cold weather, being most abundant in the far north-west, and becoming- 

 less and less common as you proceed south or east. Besides the provinces above noted, a few 

 specimens are met with in that portion of the central provinces formerly known as the Sagar 

 and Nerbuddah territories, and in the northern or Shikarpoor collectorate of Sindh, where I 

 this year shot a specimen." Captain Hutton also gave Mr. Hume the following notes, viz. : — At 

 Mussooree, about 5500 feet of elevation, it cannot be called rare, although at the same time it 

 is by no means abundant. In the Dehra Dhoon it is not so common as in the lower hills ; but 

 one was seen on the Eastern Dhoon, near Hurdwar, in January, sitting on the branch of a lofty 

 tree beside a large nest made of dry sticks and branches of goodly size ; the nest was rather a 

 deep bowl — rather deeper, that is, than those of G. bengalensis ; the sides, and especially the 

 bottom, were of great thickness, and the diameter fully 2^ feet : at that time the nest was not 

 completed within. The branches with which the nest was constructed were not merely laid one 

 upon another in simple platform fashion, but were strongly interwoven like loose basket-work. 

 In the end of February the spot was again visited, and the nest was found to be finished, the 

 lining being of somewhat finer sticks, with bits of rag and a few feathers apparently rubbed from 

 the body of the bird, which had evidently been sitting on it ; it was, however, still empty, and no 

 bird was seen. 



