GEIFFON VULTURE. 



GYPS FULVUS (J. F. Gmelin). 



Vultur fulvus, Gmelin, Syst. Nat. i. p. 249 (1788) ; Naum. i. 



p. 162; Hewitson, i. p. 3. 

 Gyps fulvus, Yarr. ed. 4, i. p. 1 ; Dresser, v. p. 373. 



Vautour Griffon, French; Weisskopfiger Geier, German; 

 Buitre, Pajaraco, Spanish. 



One capture only of this Vulture has hitherto been 

 recorded as having occurred in our Islands ; the indi- 

 vidual in question, now preserved in the Museum of 

 Trinity College, Dublin, was caught alive near Cork 

 Harbour in the spring of 1843. Although this specimen 

 is undoubtedly, as Mr. H. Saunders says, in immature 

 plumage, I here give a representation taken from life of a 

 fully adult bird, for the reason that Gould, in his ' Birds 

 of Europe,' figures an immature bird of this species, 

 and, with all due deference to my friend Mr. Dresser, I 

 cannot consider that the excellent first plate of this bird 

 in his work was taken from a very old specimen. It 

 must, however, be remembered that " old " is, with 

 regard to Vultures, a very indefinite term ; personally I 

 should not consider a Griffon Vulture fully mature till 

 it had attained the age of at least seven or eight years. 



