,136 THE BIRDS OF CALCUTTA. 



I was told, boiled beef in the hope of a more 

 dainty meal of dead dogs and rats. To these 

 viands the King Vulbure appears also more addicted, 

 but I saw none at Dhappa and was told they were 

 rare there and much more wary than the rest. In 

 fact, the first occasion on which I identified his 

 vulturine highness in Calcutta was when two of the 

 species pitched on the maidan, apparently to settle 

 some difference of opinion. Since then I have seen 

 one or two others there. 



In Vultures we have in the East not only the rajah 

 and the common ruck of his subjects of various 

 species, but the humble sweeper, in the form of the 

 well-known White Scavenger Vulture {Neophron 

 ginginianus). This bird, however, eschewed the 

 neighbourhood of Calcutta for, although appallingly 

 accommodating of stomach, he has some deUcacy 

 of constitution about him, and avoids a moist 

 climate. 



It is a curious thing that the same hierarchy of 

 Vultures obtains in America, although the birds 

 there belong to a distinct family of their own ; the 

 old-world vultures being very near of kin to the 

 eagles. In South America we get a handsome and 

 powerful King Vulture (Cathartes papa), but creamy- 

 fawn is here the royal colour ; and he has for subjects 

 the mean Turkey-Buzzards {Oenops aura), in their 



