THE VULTURE. 13& 



A very similar gradation may also be traced with the 

 American kinds. So, too, with the cranes. The 

 little Demoiselle {Anthropoides vwgo) has her pretty 

 head well covered ; the Coolung {Griis communis) is 

 much higger and is bare on the top ; the white Crane 

 (Grus leucogeranus), bigger still, is bare from beak 

 to eyes all round ; and the great Saras is naked all 

 over his head and some way down his neck. Thus 

 we arrive at the fact that baldness and prosperity in 

 birds somehow go together ; when a species gets up 

 in the world it can afford to take off some of its 

 feathers where they will not be missed, and go about 

 more or less decollete. A simpler explanation would 

 be that when a bird gets over a certain size it can't 

 grow enough feathers to cover itself properly ; but 

 after all this involves the other, for it must be pros- 

 perous to be big at all. Vultures may certainly 

 claim to be well-to-do, though they don't look it. 

 Their simple tastes are more easily gratified than 

 the expensive ones of the eagles, who, however, will 

 condescend to bully the best of them occasionally 

 in order to take of their high yet humble repast ; 

 and nobody owes them a grudge, for they do no ane 

 any harm to speak of. Yet there are curious limits 

 to their spread which are hard to understand. It is 

 strange that there should be none in Ceylon, 

 for instance, and that none inhabit Australia ; for- 



