FALCONID^ 



GYPAETUS 



321 



round the eye extending forward to the nostrils, together with the 

 bristles covering the nostrils and the bunch of chin bristles, black, 

 but the ear-coverts and cheeks pale tawny ; the feathers round the 

 neck are somewhat lanceolate and form a ruff; rest of the upper 

 surface including the tail, ashy black, darkest on the edges of the 

 feathers and white along the shafts ; below, including the thighs, 

 tawny-rufous, darkest on the upper breast, under tail-coverts tawny 

 tipped with pale brown, feathering of the legs extending about three- 

 fourths of the length of the tarsus, not reaching the bases of the toes. 

 Iris yellow surrounded by red; bill pale black, cere and base 

 bluish ; feet ashy. 



Fig. lOY. — Gypaetus ossifragits. x i. 



Length about 44 ; wing 31 ; tail 19-5 ; eulmen 3-8 ; tarsus 4-20. 



A young bird has the head and neck all round, including the ruff, 

 blackish ; the bristles on the face and chin hardly developed ; the 

 rest of the upper surface brown, darkest on the wing- and tail-quills, 

 the shafts of which are conspicuously white; below, except the 

 throat, which is black, pale brown throughout. Iris hazel brown. 



Distribution. — The Southern Lammergeyer replaces the European 

 bird in Africa (except in the Atlas mountains where the European 

 bird is said to be found) ; it has been obtained in Egypt, Nubia, 

 Abyssinia and South Africa, but does not appear to have been 

 hitherto noticed in Bast Africa. 



This bird is seldom seen far away from the mountains, and it is 

 along the southern ranges from Wellington eastwards and in the 

 Drakensberg that it has chiefly been observed. 



21 



VOL. III. 



