52 
VERTEBRATA. 
GROUP OP VOLTURES. 
The Gbipfon Vulture, or Tawny Vulture, is the Common Vulture of Europe, V, fulvus : 
the head and neck are covered with close-set, short, white, downy feathers ; the lower part of the 
neck is surronnded with a ruff of long, slender, Avhite feathers, sometimes with a slight yellow 
tinge ; on the middle of the breast is a space furnished with white down. The whole of the body, 
the wings, and the origin of the tail, yellow-brown or Isabella color ; quills and tail-feathers 
blackish-brown ; total length exceeding four feet. The female is larger than the male. 
The nest of this species is generally formed upon the most elevated rocks, but it often builds 
qh the highest forest trees, and in Sardinia on the loftiest oaks, where the nest of brushwood and 
roots is more than three feet in diameter. The eggs, which are generally two in number, are of 
a dull greenish or grayish-white, slightly marked with pale reddish spots, and with a rough sur- 
face. Like all the other true vultures, it feeds ^principally upon dead carcasses, to which it is fre- 
''quently attracted in very considerable numbers. When it has once made a lodgment upon its 
prey, it rarely quits the banquet while a morsel of flesh remains, so that it is not uncommon to 
see it perched upon a putrefying corpse for several successive days. It never attempts to carry 
off a portion even to satisfy its young, but feeds them by disgorging the half-digested moi'sel from 
its maw. Sometimes, but very rarely, it makes its prey of living victims, and even then of such 
only as are incapable of offering the smallest resistance ; for in a contest for superiority it has not 
that advantage which is possessed by the falcon tribes, of lacerating its enemy with its talons, and 
must therefore rely upon its beak alone. It is only, however, when no other mode of satiating 
its appetite presents itself, that it has recourse to the destruction of other animals for its subsist- 
ence. After feeding, it is seen fixed for hours in one unvaried posture, patiently waiting until the 
work of digestion is completed and the stimulus of hunger is renewed, to enable and to urge it 
to mount again into the upper regions of the air, and fly about in quest of its necessary food. If 
violently disturbed after a full meal, it is incapable of flight until it has disgorged the contents of 
its stomach ; lightened of which, and freed from their debilitating effects, it is immediately in a 
condition to soar to such a pitch as, in spite of its magnitude, to become inAdsible to human sight. 
In captivity it seems to have no other desire than that of obtaining its regular supply of food. So 
long as that is afforded, it manifests a perfect indifference to the circumstances in which it is 
placed. 
The Bb^own- Vulture, F. cinereus, the Vautour Aro'ian and Vautour JSfoir of the French ; Cin- 
ermus or Ash Vulture, and Bengal Vulture of Latham ; the Ghrauer Geier of the Germans, is a 
