SIX MONTHS’ BIRD COLLECTING IN EGYPT. 129 
3. GRIFFON VULTURE, Gyps fulvus (Gmel.). 
This again is another splendid Vulture, which is con- 
sidered to be resident; a common bird, and generally 
distributed, barring the Delta, where we did not see any. 
Those who are only acquainted with northern Europe can 
form no conception of how big Vultures look when their 
wings are spread, or what a grand spectacle a score or so 
present sailing on motionless pinions in the neighbourhood 
of their eyrie, which is generally on some steep mountain 
side. There was a place of the kind opposite Minieh, where 
some two score had located themselves on the ledges of the 
‘steep cliff on the east bank. They were too far for our 
guns, and they knew it, though I could have got them if I 
had used a poisoned sheep. I never had the luck to catch 
one gorged—an event which surely cannot be so common 
as some authors would have us believe; but at Girgeh a 
brace of them were inspecting the carcase of the very largest 
fish I ever saw, and I fancy they meant to have a good 
“tuck in” when we were gone. I never myself met with 
any recognition of the name JVzssr, by which this species is 
known among the Arabs in some countries. 
4. EGYPTIAN VULTURE, Neophron percnopterus (Linn.). 
(Hasselquist, 14); “Rackham.’* 
These are unsavoury birds, but useful as scavengers. 
That is their foul office, and where there is any offal there 
they congregate. The lists I have consulted do not say 
they are less common in Lower Egypt than in Upper, yet 
we only saw one or two north of Cairo. In that city of 
picturesque dirt and eastern filthiness they were common 
enough, and it was the only place where old and young 
®% The Arabic names are given in inverted commas. 
K 
