'2° allen’s naturalist’s library. 
I'he Griffon is an early breeder, and begins to repair its 
March" towards the end of February or in 
Nest.— Composed principally of sticks, and placed on a 
ledge of an almost inaccessible rock, or in a hole or cave. 
Eggs. One, occasionally two ; generally white wi hout mark- 
ings, but sometimes streaked or blotched with pale reddish- 
brown. borne eggs are even handsomely marked with the 
latter colour. Axis, 3'7 ; diam., 2‘8. 
THE SCAVENGER VULTURES. GENUS NEOPHRON. 
NeopJirm, Savigny, Syst. Ois. de I’Egypte, p. 238 (1808). 
Type, N. percnopterus (I..). 
The Neophrons are distingui.shed by their small size and 
very sleruler bills, the nostrils being placed horizontally in the 
atter. Four species of these Scavenger Vultures are known 
to science, two of them white and two brown in colour The 
latter have the crop-patch feathered, and are confined to 
Africa, one of them, N. pikatus, being found in the southern 
part of the continent, and the other, tV. monachus, being an 
inhabitant of North-eastern Africa and certain parts of 
Western Africa. ^ 
Of the two white Scavenger Vultures which have the cron- 
p^atch bare instead of feathered, the one which is found in 
Europe IS the best known, and extends throughout the Medi- 
terranean Region, being replaced in India by a closely-allied 
form, N. gtngmtanus. ■’ 
I. THE EGYPTIAN SCAYENGER VULTURE. NEOPHRON 
PERCNOPTERUS. 
Vultur percnopterus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 122 
Hist. Br. B. i. p. ii (1883). ^ ’ 
Neophron percnopterus, Macg. Br. B. iii. p. 165 (1840') • 
Newton, ed. Yarr. Brit. B. i. p^ 6 (1871); Sharpe, Cat 
B Brit Mus. 1. p. 17 (1874); Dresser, B. Eur. v. p 20 
pi. 322 (1879); B. O. U. List Bt B. p. 92 (1882I 
.Saunders, Man. Br. B. p. 303 (1889); Lilford, Col. Fig! 
Br. B. part xxiii. (1893). ® 
{Plate XU.) 
