122 
allen’s naturalist’s library. 
though the bulk of the migration takes place in March, the 
laying of the eggs taking place about the ist of May. 
The food of the present species consists of all kinds of 
carrion, dung, and putrefying substances of all sorts. It will 
take its meal from a carcase after the Hytenas and Griffons 
have had their share, and even frequents the sea-shore to 
pick up rotten fish thrown up by the tide. Though repul- 
sive in its habits, everyone admits that the Neophron is a 
fine bird on the wing. In the Himalayas I found the Indian 
representative of the genus inhabiting the lower valleys, where 
they sailed majestically backwards and forwards, scanning the 
ground below. At Simla they never ascended to the higher 
portions of the mountains, where the Griffons were to be seen 
topping the crest in the early morning on their far-reaching 
course, but hundreds of feet down below one could see the 
White Scavengers sailing in the valley in circles or in a direct 
line. 
From their habits one can gather the idea of what their nest 
may be like. Here is the description given by that excellent 
observer. Colonel Irby, in his work on the “ Ornithology of 
the Straits of Gibraltar ” : — “ The nest is often easily accessible 
from below, and, placed on a ledge of some overhung rock, 
generally at the top of a sierra, is composed of a few dead 
sticks, always lined with wool, rags, and rubbish, such as a 
dog’s head, boars’ tusks, dead kittens, foxes’ skulls and fur, 
rotten hedge-hogs, dead toads, dead snakes, skeletons of 
snakes, lizards, mummified lizards, lizards’ heads, carapaces 
of the water-tortoise, rotten fish, excrement both of man and 
beast, bones, bits of rope and paper. In one nest Major 
Verner found, among a heap of filthy rags, a number of meal- 
worms. Probably the Neophron had picked up a bag with 
some flour in it. Naturally, from the above-mentioned con- 
tents, their nests are most offensively odoriferous ! ” He 
further adds : — “ They are probably among the foulest feeding 
birds that live, and are very omnivorous, devouring any animal 
substance, even all sorts of excrement : nothing comes amiss 
to them.” 
Nest. — A mass of sticks and rubbish, as described above. 
As a rule in Southern Europe, the nest is jilaced on the ledge 
