TO LOWER SUM. 51 



The heaths are often fired it appears, and this may ac- 

 count for the absence of many plants, besides the season was 

 comparatively late and many plants perhaps out of flower. 



On the 13th, we crossed the heath and went across 

 the river by the maiu road and cut across the country to a 

 more distant limestone block Batu Bunga. After crossing 

 a deap stream with somewhat acrobatic feats we arrived 

 at the rock ani attempted to ascend it, but it soon got too 

 difficult and as it seemed very barren we descended and 

 walked round it, and found an easy way of getting to it 

 without crossing any streams. After* returning and lunching 

 we went across the heath, and seeing a large number of 

 vultures descending behind the gaol went to see what they 

 were at. There had been a great deal of cattle plague in the 

 district and a large mortality among the buffaloes and kine. 

 We had-several times come on the remains of cattle, either 

 bones lying about or carcasses partly buried in shallow graves. 

 Here we found a black bull which must have died that morning 

 or the previous night surrounded by fifty or more vultures of 

 both kinds, the big brown griffon Pseicdogyps bengalensis 

 and the smaller Otogyps calvus the latter being the most nu- 

 merous. The bull which was already much swollen lay on 

 its side. The vultures were quite unable to tear the hide, and 

 were feeding on the viscera through the anal opening, which 

 they had much enlarged. Squabbling and fighting the 

 smaller kind were driven away from time to time by the great 

 Pseudogyps. These great birds looking more like brown geese 

 than anything else would every now and then leave their food 

 to engage in a fight with each other, spreading their wings and 

 lowering the head they hopped at each other like cocks fighting 

 and struck with their claws and beaks at each other's heads. 

 Sometimes ^hey marched solemnly erect with expanded wings, 

 the head drawn back so that the white ruff of the neck made 

 them look something between an enlarged owl and an heraldic 

 eagle. They did not seem to hurt each other in the fights, 

 and I saw one standing on another's back and pecking its head 

 quite disregarded for some time by the victim. 



R. A. Soc.,No. 59. 1911. 



