VUI/TURID.E. 



BJ PTORES. VUL TUBIDJE. 



PLATE I. 



EGYPTIAN VULTURE. 



Neophron Percnopterus. (8ar.) 



Of the six species of Vulture indigenous to Europe, the 

 Egyptian Vulture represented in the plate is the only one 

 that has been ever taken in Britain, and of this but one 

 example is recorded to have occurred, which was shot at 

 Kilve in Somersetshire in 1825. As this individual was in 

 an undoubtedly wild state, it has been considered by all sub- 

 sequent writers on British Ornithology as affording a fair 

 opportunity of including it among the rare accidental visitants 

 to these shores. Its true locality is in countries much warmer 

 than our own, in which its services are more needed ; and 

 where, by a benevolent dispensation of Providence in adapt- 

 ing its powers and inclinations to the offices it is destined to 

 perform, it removes from the face of the earth those putrify- 

 ing animal substances which in such climates, without the 

 assistance of these insatiable scavengers, would become noxi- 

 ous to its fellow beings. This species differs from the other 

 European Vultures in its habits, living chiefly in pairs, and 

 not associating like its congeners in flocks. In character the 

 Vulture differs greatly from the other species of Raptores, in 

 being destitute of the courage and boldness by which they 

 are distinguished. In the formation of its feet, also, as 

 Temminck justly remarks, it is not furnished with the pow- 

 erful weapons of offence with which other rapacious birds are 



