122 



VULTURES. 



flock than at any time before this winter. Not a wild duck or widgeon 

 has yet been seen about the streams in our valleys. Saw some frogs' 

 (Pama temporaria) spawn ; Gathered the first primrose (Primula vul- 

 garis), yellow hawkweed (Hieracium aureum), scorpion senna, shep- 

 herd's purse ( Thlaspi latifolium), and lychnis, in flower ; sweet briar 

 and gooseberry in leaf. An early shaw potato, which was left in the 

 ground last summer, under a south wall in my garden, has produced a 

 stalk one foot ten inches and a half in height. 



P. S. (Omitted January 23rd.) I have frequently seen of late, a single 

 heron by the rivers (Mole and Nymph), which I have no doubt comes 

 from Pixton near Dulverton, the seat of the Earl of Carnarvon, (about 

 twelve miles distant,) as there is a heronry in the park. They often 

 visit us during the summer and autumn. 



Grilston, near South Maldon, North Devon, 

 4th February, 1834. 



VULTURES (From Le Vaillanfs Birds). 



CAPE VULTURE (Egyps fulvus, Savigny). 



( Continued from page 89.) 



Le Chasse-Fiente, Le Vaill, Ois. d'Afriq. i. p. 44, pi. 10; Vultur Kolbii, Lath. 

 Ind. Orn. Sup. p. 1 ; Daud. i. p. 15 ; Temm. Man. d'Orn. p. 4 ; Id. ed. 2d, p. 6 ; 

 Kolben's Vulture, Lath. Gen. Lyn. Sup. ii. p. 12 ; Id. Gen. Hist. i. p. 19. 



Independent of the large vulture, described in the preceding arti- 

 cle, there is still, throughout every part of Africa which I have visited, 

 another large vulture, totally differing from the former, as much in its 

 colours as in several characteristics which easily distinguish it from the 

 other species. 



I have suffered this bird to retain the name of Chasse-Fiente, which 

 is the literal translation of the Dutch name stront-jager, applied gene- 

 rally by the colonists of the Cape of Good Hope to all vultures, and 

 particularly to the one in question, because it is more commonly known. 

 The Oricou is found only on the confines of European plantations, where, 

 as I have previously observed, it is called the black carrion vulture 

 (swarte-aas-vogel) . 



The Chasse-Fiente is the bird spoken of by Kolben under the same 

 name, and which he has particularised as an eagle at the Cape. Buffon, 

 it seems, in comparing this pretended eagle, at the Cape, to the genus 



