EGYPTIAN VULTURE. 



provided, its claws being neither adapted to seize nor to 

 carry off its prey, which it consequently devours on the spot. 

 In their flight, which is powerful and long- sustained, Vultures 

 sometimes ascend to a surprising height in circling gyrations. 

 Their sense of vision and organs of smell are very acute. 

 They are said to be extremely timid and easily put to flight ; 

 yet they appear susceptible of a sort of domestication, as they 

 are described by African travellers as attaching themselves to 

 individual groups of the natives in the regions they inhabit. 

 Their geographical range is very extensive, specimens per- 

 fectly similar having been found in Norway and at the Cape 

 of Good Hope, in Spain and in India. In Africa and Turkey 

 they are more numerous than elsewhere. They have not 

 hitherto been found in America. 



The Egyptian Vultures choose for their place of nidifica- 

 tion the most inaccessible rocks, and their eggs, according to 

 Le Vaillant, are white. The young birds differ greatly in 

 colour from the adult, their plumage being in the first year 

 deep brown, varied with a lighter tint ; this plumage gives 

 place as the bird approaches maturity to feathers of a brownish 

 grey interspersed with white, in which state the iris is brown, 

 and the feet, head, and beak livid. This mottled plumage 

 is succeeded in the mature bird by feathers of spotless white, 

 with exception of the quills, which are in all stages black. 

 The sexes differ only in size, the female being the largest. 



In the Egyptian Vulture the beak is long and compressed ; 

 the cere is naked, except at the base, where it is covered with 

 a few radiating white hairs, and extends beyond the middle 

 of the beak ; the nostrils are placed in the lower part of the 

 cere, open, and of an oval form ; the head and upper part of 

 the neck are nearly naked, the skin livid red, interspersed 

 with a few straggling hairs and white down ; the lower part 

 of the neck covered with long pointed feathers : the toes are 

 partially scutellated ; the middle one has five scales, the 



