6 
CATALOGUE. 
being very little advanced four or five days after. The bird was still 
unable to stand, for although its strength had increased, the weight 
and increase of bulk of the body still rendered its legs of no use. 
Once or twice, on placing it on the ground, it swallowed several 
large stones, about the size of a sparrow's egg ; and these I found 
voided three days afterwards, in the basket which served him for a 
nest. In a week's time the prime quills grew to an inch and a half 
long. The size of the body increased rapidly, and the bird supported 
itself on the knee-joints, but could not yet stand at forty days old. 
Its appetite became now no easy matter to satisfy, a pound of flesh 
at a meal being thought nothing of. At six weeks old the ruff 
round the neck was clearly discernible, and the quills of the wings 
were about three inches long. The top and hind part of the head 
began also to lose the soft thick down which had hitherto clothed it, 
and presented a naked bluish skin. On the 20th January it stood 
upright for the first time, being about forty-three or forty-four days 
old. At two months old it became completely fiedged. It was now 
so tame as to become a perfect nuisance ; for no sooner did it see 
any person than it ran towards them screaming and flapping its 
long wings, with the head bent low, and neck drawn in towards the 
body, often pecking at the feet of the person thus intercepted. 
Many were the thumps and kicks the luckless bird received from the 
servants, who most cordially hated him, as their bare feet were often 
assailed and cut with the sharp blows of his curved beak. Still, 
through good and evil, he remained with us, roosting at night some- 
times on the top of my bungalow, and at others wandering to some 
of the neighbours.' Often did I wish that he would take unto himself 
the wings of the morn and flee away ; for he never entered the house 
without making it so offensive as to be scarcely bearable. Yet, 
having brought the evil upon myself, I was bound to bear it with 
patience ; and at length, when I almost began to despair of ever 
getting rid of him, he deserted his usual haunts on the 10th May, 
being then five months old, and I never saw it afterwards." — (Journ. 
A. S. B. YI. p. 112.) 
Subfam. SARCORHAMPHIN^, Gray, 
Genus Neophron, ^ar>., Desc. de VEgyp. H. N. I. p. 77 (1809). 
Peecnoptebtjs, Cuv., Beg. An. \. p. 307 (1817). 
8. NEOPHRON PERCNOPTERUS, Linn. Sp. 
Vultur percnopterus, Linn. S. N. I. p. 123. Lath., Hist. 
I.t.5,p.l6. 
