THE GRIFFIN VULTURE. 
323 
country inhabited by the Kitsch and Nuer negroes. Petherick 
describes him at some length. He appears to possess considerable 
powers of flight. His chief food is fish. 
The marabout is not a true stork, though near of kin. In India he 
is called the argala; while his English sobriquet is " the adjutant," in 
allusion to his military bearing. He has an enormous bill, while from 
the under part of the neck depends a curiously-shaped pouch. From 
beneath the wings are obtained the beautiful marabout feathers. A 
species of marabout is found in Senegal. 
THE GRIFFIN VULTURE. 
Among the scavengers of Egypt we may place the griffin vulture, 
which the voyager on the Nile will constantly catch sight of, engaged 
in a banquet upon carrion, or perched on a sand-bank and watching for 
a happy opportunity. He is by no means a hero. Mr. Smith tells us 
of one which retreated before three tiny hooded crows. He was 
tugging away at a carcass when they made their appearance ; and as 
first one, and then another, jumped up at his head, or fluttered over 
him defiantly with outstretched wings, the great cowardly monster 
withdrew from the prey, and eyed the feast despairingly from a 
little distance. When the crows retired, he would advance cautiously 
to the dainty morsel ; only to be bullied again by his diminutive anta- 
gonists, one of which sufficed to drive him back in abject terror from 
the spoil. 
Mr. Smith adds that on one occasion he saw nine vultures on a single 
sand-bank, and fourteen on another at two hundred yards distance ; on 
the next day twelve, and on the following day twenty. Wherever a 
carcass became putrid, the vultures immediately assembled in flocks. As 
carrion of one kind or another abounds in Egypt, those useful scavengers 
also abound ; and most laboriously do they pursue their vocation— never 
resting until they have disposed of all objectionable matter. Notwith- 
standing their unclean habits and their craven disposition, these birds are 
of dignified appearance. Sometimes they may be seen in an immense 
body, soaring in the air at an incredible elevation — now sailing each in 
his own circle, and now floating motionless on expanded pinions. 
