18 VULTURE, 



forty or fifty, and some fall in or near Gibraltar, from fatigue, being- 

 exhausted from the length of their flight, and will frequently become 

 tame. They are, in general, sluggish and timid, being afraid even 

 of the common poultry. The flesh of dead animals is the food they 

 most greedily search after, and the more putrid, the more agreeable; 

 but as to fish, it is generally rejected. 



They are fond of rolling themselves in the dust, like common 

 poultry : when wetted by rain, expand, and flap their wings, in 

 order to dry them, like the corvorant. In a state of confinement, 

 are observed not only to drink water, but delighted when a quantity 

 of it is thrown over them. 



M. Levaillant says, they are met Avith frequently at the Cape of 

 Good Hope; and M. de la Peirouse* observes, that the adult male 

 is white, the female brown, and whilst growing, and yet young, are 

 often of a pale colour; spotted yellow and brown above, and 

 yellow beneath, and differ so materially from the old ones, as to 

 deceive the inexperienced. 



Gmelin found the Fulvous and Golden Vvdtures together, on 

 the Alpine Mountains of Persia. 



In Gen. Hardwicke's drawings is a Vulture, three feet or rnorein 

 length ; head and whole neck bare of feathers, but white and rather 

 downy; round the eyes and chin dusky; bill black, moderately 

 hooked ; irides brown ; on the breast a bare pendulous craw or crop, 

 pear shaped, near five inches long, and dirty flesh colour; upper 

 part of the pliunage in general ta^vny bro^vn, the feathers marked 

 down the shaft with a pale streak ; under parts of the body pale 

 yellowish, with paler streaks on the thighs ; quills and tail black ; 

 legs ash coloured, spotted with black; claws black, and hooked; 

 seen at Cawnpore, in January. 



* Neu. Abh. der Schw. Ac. der Wiss. S. 19, 



