0/ i LOUD LILI'OIil) ON RAPTOllIAL RIKDS IN TIIK LILFORD AVIAUlFiS. 
iigure oi this species that gives any approximate idea of its fully 
adult plumage. Tliat given hy j\Ir Dresser, in his excellent worlc 
on the ‘Birds of Europe,’ is a very good representation of the 
plumage of the bird up to seven or eight years of ago, during which 
period it may be very fairly called Black Vulture. I have never 
been able to detect any reason for the epithet Cinereous, as applied 
to this species, that is, if I rightly apprehend it to mean ash or 
cinder coloured, and I have merely adopted the term most generally 
in use. The true adult plumage of this A^ulture may be roughly 
termed dingy browm, in fact, it very nearly approaches that of the 
Sociable Vulture (Oinf/i/i/s nnricniaris), with which species I had 
frequent opportunities of comparing it, as one of the latter species 
lived at Lilford for many years in the same compartment wdth my 
Black, or Brown, but not cinereous Spaniard. This last individual 
has for the last twelve or thirteen years regularly laid two or three 
Avell-coloured eggs annually, sometimes going through the form of 
making a nest, in Avhich it w’as occasionally assisted by the late 
Oto'jnp^, and by a (Irilfon A^ulture (Gi/ps fnhoi), Avhich still 
survives. These three birds seemed to agree perfectly together, 
a happy fact, all the more remarkable from the coincidence that 
they arc all (of late years elderly) females. The habits of my 
Castilian A^ulture are most grotes(|ue. When she fancies herself 
unobserved, she Avill suddenly pick up a stick and toss it repeatedly 
into the air, catching it more or less skilfullj'^, and going through 
a sort of hopping dance with most ridiculous clumsiness and absurd 
contortions of the head and neck. This species is common in 
Andalucia, and may be called abundant in Central Spain, Avhere it 
nests in the tallest Pine trees, both in the mountains, and less 
commonly in the plains. One or two eggs are generall}'’ laid, three 
occasionally: they are Avhite, more or less thickly spotted and 
blotched with bright nut colour. In the great alluvial plains of 
the lower Guadah][uiver, it is no uncommon sight to see a hundred 
or more Vultures of this species and the Griffon congregated Avith 
other birds of prey about a carcase; but in that part of Spain the 
latter is the most common of the tAvo, as it certainly is in the 
northern provinces; Avhilst in the central provinces, the present 
species greatly preponderates in numbers, as it does also in the 
Island of Sardinia. My Griifon Vulture Avas taken from an 
imsolatcd hill-side, I can hardly call it a clili', at a short distance 
