EGYPTIAN NEOPHRON. 
97 
accoun'. of its utility in clearing off putrid sub- 
stances ;* at the same time, it is said occasionally 
to feed on reptiles and the smaller animals. Of 
its nidification we are equally ignorant. Accord- 
ing to Temminck, it breeds in the most inacces- 
sible places, in the holes or fissures of some per- 
pendicular cliff ; but the source of this information 
is not mentioned, neither the number or colour of 
the eggs. Mr Bruce again adds to his descrip- 
tion, “ It lays but two eggs, and builds its nest in 
the most desert parts of the country.” 
The single specimen upon which we rank this 
species as an occasional “ British visitant,” was 
killed on the shores of the British Channel in 
October, 1825, and came into the possession of 
the Rev. A. Mathew of Kilve, in Somersetshire.^ 
When first discovered, it was feeding on the car- 
case of a dead sheep, and had so gorged itself 
with the carrion as to be unable or unwilling to 
fly to any great distance at a time ; it was there- 
fore approached without much difficulty and shot. 
Another bird, apparently of this species, was seen 
at the same time upon the wing at no great dis- 
* This is the Bachmah of Bruce, who states that it is a 
very great breach of order, or of police, to kill or molest 
these birds near Cairo App. 163. 
t Mr Mudie, in his “ Feathered Tribes,” mentions a 
pair having been seen in the vicinity of Bridgewater in 
i826, hut he does not notice the above. Has he mistaken 
the place and date of the capture ? 
G 
