18 EGYPTIAN BIRDS 
walking, half hopping, on the ground, or when 
sitting huddled up, at once disappears, and you 
acclaim the Griffon the king of flying things. A 
sea-gull, a swallow, an eagle, and many another, are 
all splendid in their graceful mastery over, and use of, 
the air we live in, but for sheer majesty of dominion 
I know no equal to the great Griffon Vulture. 
One has often seen it on the sand-banks by 
the river’s side, sitting perhaps, either dozing after 
a gorge or waiting for the late lamented to reach 
just that nice point which means dinner-time. 
Sometimes they mildly squabble amongst them- 
selves; sometimes they advance open-mouthed 
on some late arrival who comes swooping down 
with feet and legs stretched out well in front of 
him. But on the whole, I think, after its flight, 
its one outstanding virtue is its sociability. We 
none of us quite like that person who shuns his 
fellows, and was never known to have any gather- 
ing of friends even in simplest social fashion, and 
with birds there are some of those selfish kinds 
who prefer to live alone and feed alone, and 
absolutely resent any attempted sociability. But 
the Vulture, in spite of his rather forbidding face, 
is a downright sociable creature. On many a time 
one has seen Egyptian Vultures feeding with a 
