AND AMERICAN RURAL SPORTS. 
127 
the crop, where the naked skin has a bluish tinge. A broad 
ruff of pure white feathers surrounds the lower part of the 
neck; and the rest of the plumage, in the adult bird, is of a 
grayish brown, with the exception of the quill-feathers of 
the wings and tail, which are of a dusky black. The under 
parts are somewhat lighter than the upper; the bill is of a 
livid colour with a tinge of blue; the iris of a bright orange; 
and the legs and feet grayish brown, the feathers of the in- 
side of their upper part being pure white. In the female 
the colours appear to coincide exactly with those of the 
male; but the young birds are at first of a bright fawn, which 
is variegated, after the first and second changes of plumage, 
with patches of gray, and changes to the perfectly adult hue 
only after the close of the third year. 
This noble species of Vulture, which is one of the largest 
birds of prey of the Old Continent, measuring from three 
feet and a half to four feet in length, and more than twice as 
much in the expanse of its wings, is found on the lofty 
mountain chains of Europe, Asia, and Africa. It is notun- 
common during the summer in the Alps and Pyrenees, but 
is said to retreat in winter to the north of Africa, extending 
itself, according to Le Vaillant, to the Cape of Good Hope. 
M. Risso, however, informs us that it is stationary on the 
Alps in the vicinity of Nice. The Rock of Gibraltar, the 
Mountains of Silesia and the Tyrol, Greece and Turkey, 
are also spoken of as its European habitats; Egypt is indi- 
cated by Savigny; the Mountains of Ghilan in the north of 
Persia by Hablizl; and other localities still farther east are 
given by other writers. 
The nest of the Griffon Vulture is formed in the clefts of 
rocks. It lays from two to four eggs, which are of a grayish 
white, with numerous spots of a very light and diluted red. 
Like all the other birds of its tribe it feeds principally upon 
dead carcasses, to which it is frequently 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 mor- 
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 the force of its beak 
alone. It is only, however, when no other mode of satiat- 
ing its appetite presents itself, that it has recourse to the 
destruction of other animals for its subsistence. 
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 abroad 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 imme- 
diately in a condition to soar to such a pitch as, in spite of 
its magnitude, to become invisible to human sight. 
In captivity it appears to have no other desire than that of 
obtaining its regular supply of food. So long as that is 
afforded it, it manifests a perfect indifference to the circum- 
stances in which it is placed. An individual has been for 
three years an inhabitant of the Garden, and was for many 
years previous in the possession of Joshua Brookes, Esq., by 
whom it was presented to the Society . — Tower Menagerie. 
THE CHINCHILLA. 
Chinchilla Lanigera. 
The peculiar softness and beauty of the fur of the Chin- 
chilla have been so long, so ornamentally, and so comfort- 
ably known to our fair countrywomen, that it would be 
paying their taste and curiosity a sorry compliment to ima- 
gine that they have no desire to become acquainted with the 
animal by which it is furnished. We are happy therefore to 
to have it in our power to gratify them, as well as the sci- 
entific zoologist, by a figure and description of so inter- 
esting a creature, the former the only one that has yet been 
given to the world, and the latter the first that has appeared 
in our language. 
Notwithstanding the extensive trade carried on in its 
skins, the Chinchilla might have been regarded until the 
last year almost as an unknown animal: for no modern 
naturalist, with the exception of the Abbe Molina, a native 
of Chili, who has written expressly on the Natural History 
of that country, had seen an entire specimen, living or dead; 
and the description given in his work added little of truth 
and much of error to the information that was to be derived 
from an inspection of the skins themselves in the imperfect 
state in which they are sent into the market. Still his ac- 
count contains many particulars relative to the habits of the 
animal, which are not to be met with elsewhere, and we 
shall therefore extract it entire; first, however, referring to 
such scanty notices in the works of former writers as appear 
to have been founded on original observation. 
The earliest account of the Chinchilla with which we 
have met is contained in Father Joseph Acosta’s Natural 
and Moral History of the East and West Indies, published 
