388 



6 



notice ; but near Varna we had two eggs brought to us which seemed to be of this species, and 

 which the man who brought them said had been taken out of some rocks. In the Dobrudscha 

 they are very common, and, though not building in colonies like the Griffon, we found four nests 

 not more than 200 yards apart. Here, too, they were much later than in Macedonia, and we took 

 all our eggs in April, and on no occasion did we find a young bird. In two instances we took two 

 eggs out of a nest ; but this is rare. The nest is of immense size, made of sticks, lined with dried 

 grass, and but slightly hollowed ; most of them were on small stunted trees ; and the difficulty 

 was, not to get up to them, but to get into them. The Black Vulture is by no means tame when 

 sitting; and we only secured two, one of which measured about 10 feet from wing to wing." 



This Vulture sometimes lays in confinement ; and Mr. Benzon informs us that in . the 

 Zoological Gardens of Copenhagen a female has, from 1867 to 1871, annually deposited a single 

 egg, four times in March and once in April. 



Respecting a peculiar instance on record of this Vulture carrying off its young to protect 

 them from harm, we give the following note communicated to us by Count von Tschusi 

 Schmidthofen, and by him extracted from the ' Proceedings ' of the Siebenbiirg. Vers, fur 

 Naturwissenschaft in Herrmannstaclt (Jahrg. 13, 1862), viz. : — " The Royal forester, A. Fikker, 

 found in 1860 on the top of a giant beech in the valley of the Dobrabach, in the Sinnaer 

 district, the nest of this Vulture. When the young birds were large enough to be able to save 

 themselves as the tree fell, orders were given to cut the beech down. The wood-cutters had 

 Avorked at the tree some time, when the old birds appeared, uttering loud cries, and suddenly 

 pounced on the nest, caught hold of the young ones in their claws, and disappeared like lightning, 

 carrying off the young (who loudly complained of the unusual mode of locomotion) before the 

 gaze of the astonished spectators." From the above it seems that, if the facts (which appear well 

 vouched for) are quite correct, the nest in question contained more than the usual single young 

 bird ; but, on the other hand, Mr. Buckley has found two eggs in the nest of this species. 



In Dresser's collection are eleven eggs of this species, all from Spain, obtained early in 

 April, and one from Bulgaria, obtained on the 23rd of April. All these eggs are richly marked 

 with dark red, two so much so as almost to give the egg the appearance of being uniform dark 

 red in colour. The one obtained in Bulgaria is least marked, but is quite as highly coloured as 

 an average egg of the Golden Eagle. In size they vary from 3^§ by 2f^ inches to 4 inches by 

 2f^ inches. 



The figure and the description of the adult bird are taken from a very fine old male in 

 Dresser's collection. The young bird is described from a specimen in the British Museum. 



In the preparation of the above article we have examined the following specimens : — 



E Mus. H. E. Dresser, 

 a. Seville, Spain (H. Saunders). 



E Mus. Brit. Beg. 



a, b, c. Nepal (5. H. Hodgson), d. Xanthus (Fellows) . 



E Mus. A. B. Brooke, 

 a, 6- Sardinia, April 11, 1871 [A. B. B.). 



