THE GRIFFON VULTURES. 
119 
Supposing that the Spanish Griffon is not distinct, a fact by 
no means yet proved with certainty, for lack of specimens, the 
range of Gyps fulvus may be said to extend over the Mediter- 
ranean countries, and probably extends far into the Soudan, as 
Major i:)enham brought one back from his adventurous Journey 
across Africa. I often think that if the brave traveller had not 
brought a bulky Griffon’s skin, but had collected small birds to 
the same extent, what an insight he might have given us to the 
avifauna of Central Africa, which remains an unknown quan- 
tity to the present day ! The European Griffon undoubtedly 
frequents North-eastern Africa and the Red Sea district, as 
far south as Aden, and extends eastwards through Asia Minor 
to Persia, and probably to Turkestan, though here the reigning 
species may be the Indian Gyps fulvescens. 
HaMts. — ^The Griffon Vulture preys exclusively on dead 
animals, and there can be little doubt that it seeks its prey 
entirely by sight and not by the sense of smell, as many ob- 
servers have suggested. Captain AVilloughby Verner, who 
has climbed to many Griffons’ eyries, says that the stench 
about the nests is dreadful, “an indescribable sickly odour.” 
Mr. Seebohm writes : “ The stench of the Griffonries is 
almost insupportable. The entrance to the cavern or cleft 
in the rock looks as if pails of whitewash had been emptied 
upon it ; and the effluvia of ammonia and putrefaction are 
overpowering to all but the most enthusiastic oologist. One 
visit to the nest of a Vulture is sufficient to dispose for ever 
of the theory that these birds hunt by scent, and are en- 
dowed with highly-sensitive olfactory nerves. The only con- 
dition in which the existence of animal life seems possible in 
a Griffonry, is in the case of animals absolutely devoid of any 
sense of smell whatever.” 
When in flight, a Griffon Vulture is a grand bird, and will sail 
almost for a distance of a mite without once flapping its wings, 
and in the air they float round and round without a movement 
of the wings, probably by some inclination of the primaries, 
which sometimes seem to be curved upwards. In the Hima- 
layas I have seen them thus sweep over the tops of the high 
mountains and glide across the valleys with a sailing flight, 
till one could scarcely judge the distance, without any appa- 
rent movement of their wings. 
