All Rights Reserved. June, 1920. 
BIRD NOTES: 
THE 
JOURNAL OF THE FOREIGN BIRD CLUB. 
Two Vultures, 
By Wesley T. Page, F.Z.S., M.B.O.U. 
Among the birds sent me by my friend and fellow member 
Mr. E. W. Harper, were two species of Vulture, viz : The 
Pondicherry (Otogyps calviis), and the White-backed [Pseudo- 
gyps bengalcnsis). 
I was particularly pleased to receive them, as they form 
part of a group of birds which I had not kept in captivity, and 
though they were not to stay permanently with me, I was very 
pleased and greatly interested to have them under observation 
even if only for a few months, as hitherto, my acquaintance with 
such had been confined to noting them at the London Zoo. 
There arrived alive four Pondicherrys and one White- 
backed; one of the former died a few weeks after arrival; all the 
others did well. They were birds of the year when shipped, 
and are not yet fully in adult plumage. 
To some, as regards form and feeding, the Vulturidae 
stand for all that is hideous and repulsive; this certainly is not 
the case with the writer — regarding the two species under 
consideration at any rate, though it may be applicable to some 
of the species. They have some nobility of form, and their 
plumage is the reverse of despicable, and only hunger will drive 
them to feed upon the mere filthy garbage some of the species 
gorge upon. This is not only so in their native haunts, but 
also in captivity. 
In this Journal for May, 1918, page 107, Mr. Harper gave 
a short account of Vultures near Calcutta, illustrated by two 
photo-reproductions, one of which is reprinted herewith. His 
notes were as follows ; 
