234 FULVOUS, OR GRIFFIN VULTURE. 
the wing and tail are deep black, and the base of the neck is surrounded 
with a thick ruff or collar of downy grey feathers. 
The most brilliant tints are, however, those of the naked skin of the head 
and neck. “ The throat and back of the neck,” says Waterton, “are of a 
fine lemon colour; both sides of the neck, from the ears downwards, of a 
rich scarlet ; behind the corrugated part there is a white spot. The crown 
of the head is scarlet, betwixt the lower mandible and the eye, and close by 
the ear, there is a part which has a fine silvery-blue appearance. Just above 
the white spot a portion of the skin is blue, and the rest scarlet ; the skin 
which juts out behind the neck, and appe? s like an oblong carbuncle, is blue 
in part, and part orange. The bill is orange and black, the caruncles on the 
forehead orange, and the cere orange, the orbits scarlet, and the irides 
white.” 
These gorgeous tints belong only to the adult bird of four years old, and 
in the previous years of its life the colours are very obscure. In the first 
year, for example, the general colour is deep blue-grey, the abdomen white, 
and the crest hardly distinguishable either for its colour or its size. In the 
second year of its age the plumage of the bird is nearly black, diversified 
with white.spots, and the naked portions of the head and neck are violet- 
black interspersed with a few dashes of yellow. The third year gives the 
bird a very near approach to the beautiful satin fawn of the adult plumage, 
the back being nearly of the same hue as that of the four-year-old bird, but 
marked with many of the blue-black feathers of the second year. When full 
grown, the King Vulture is about the size of an ordinary goose. 
THE FULVOUS or GRIFFIN VULTURE is one of the most familiar of these 
useful birds, being spread widely over nearly the whole of the Old World, 
and found in very many portions of Europe, Asia, and Africa. 
It is one of the large Vultures, measuring four feet in length, and its ex- 
panse of wing being exceedingly wide. Like many of its relations, it is a 
high-roving brd, loving to rise out of the ken of ordinary eyes, and from 
that vast elevation to view the panorama which lies beneath its gaze ; not, 
however, tor the purpose of admiring the beauty of the prospect but for the 
more sensual object of seeking for food. Whenever it has discovered a dead 
or dying animal, the Vulture takes its stand on some adjoining tree or rock, 
and there patiently awaits the time when decomposition shall render the skin 
sufficiently soft to permit the entrance of the eager beak. As soon as its 
olfactory organs tell of that desired change, the Vulture descends upon its 
prey, and will not retire until it is so gorged with food that it can hardly stir. 
If it be suddenly attacked while in this condition, it can easily be overtaken 
and killed ; but if a pause of a few minutes only be allowed, the bird ejects 
by a spasmodic effort the load of food which it has taken into its interior, and 
is then ready for flight. 
A controversy has long raged concerning the manner in which the Vulture 
obtains knowledge of the presence of food. Some naturalists assert that the 
wonderful powers of food-finding which are possessed by the Vulture are 
owing wholly to the eyes, while others as warmly attribute to the nose this 
currious capability. Others again, desirous of steering a middle course, 
believe that the eyes and the nost.ils give equal aid in this never-ending 
duty of finding food, and many experiments have been made. with a view to 
extracting the real truth of the matter. The following account has been 
kindly transmitted to me by Colonel Drayson, R.A., who has already con- 
tributed much original information to the present work :— ~ 
“ Having shot an ourebi early in the morning, and when about three miles 
from home, I was not desirous of carrying the animal behind my saddle 
during the day’s shooting, and I therefore sought for some method of cen- 
