THE UGLIEST BIRD IN THE WORLD 
EN may differ as to which is the most 
beautiful of the fowls of the air, but 
there can be no two opinions as to 
which is the ugliest bird in the world. 
This proud distinction, I submit, indubitably belongs 
to the white scavenger vulture (Veophron ginginianus), 
better known as “Pharaoh’s chicken.” Naturalists vie 
with one another in calling the creature names. “Eha” 
stigmatizes it as “that foul bird.” Colonel Cunningham 
grows quite eloquent in his abuse of the Meophron tribe. 
According to him, they are “ truly ‘ base and degrading’ 
objects”; “any close acquaintance with them,” he 
writes, “and specially a near view of them, as they 
wander about over heaps of rubbish in quest of their 
loathsome food, can only tend to arouse a sense of 
wonder that any birds should have succeeded in be- 
coming so repulsive. St. Beuve, in writing of Talley- 
rand, affirms that “it takes a great deal of trouble to 
become wholly depraved,” but eophrons have certainly 
spared no effort to attain that end. Perhaps the 
question will be asked: “Why discourse upon this 
unlovely bird ?” 
Let me answer it in anticipation. Firstly, the creature 
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