254 
DIURNAL BIRDS OF PREY. 
differs from all other members of the family in its circular nostrils. This bird 
derives its name from the plumage being generally entirely black, with chocolate 
reflections. The head is covered with thick velvety down, developed to form a 
conspicuous patch at the occiput, and on the cheeks more silky and produced into 
tufts. The naked portions of the head and neck are of a livid flesh-colour, while 
the iris is dark brown, the bill black, and the foot yellowish. In total length the 
bird is about 42 inches. This vulture inhabits the countries bordering; both sides 
of the Mediterranean, whence it extends eastwards to India and China. Unlike the 
griffon vulture, to be next mentioned, this species is partial to wooded districts; 
although, as in our plate, both may frequently meet over the same carcase. 
It nests generally in trees, although failing these on rocks, and builds a bulky 
nest of boughs lined with twigs, in which a single large white egg, more or less 
richly marked with red, is laid. Like its kin, the black vulture is a bird of 
heavy and ungraceful form and a generally repulsive appearance; its habits, 
when not engaged in feeding, being sluggish and inert, its attitude slouching, 
and its disposition cowardly. It also resembles its allies in feeding entirely 
upon dead animals and other refuse; and it is these carrion-eating habits which 
render vultures so invaluable in tropical countries, where the care bestowed 
upon sanitary matters appears to vary inversely with the rise of the tempera¬ 
ture. Repulsive and hideous-looking as are a group of vultures assembled 
round the carcase of a large animal, and gorging themselves to satiety upon its 
contents, their appearance is very different as they are seen wheeling in circles at a 
great height in the blue sky of a tropical noon; and no spectacle is more interesting 
than to watch the vultures flocking up from all parts when some of their number 
have detected a prey, and dropped to earth to feast upon it. Much discussion has 
taken place with regard to the manner in which vultures discover their prey, 
although it is now ascertained that this is mainly due to their marvellously keen 
power of sight. On this subject Jerdon writes that he has “known a small piece 
of fresh meat—a fore-quarter of a miserable sheep—exposed in the open bare plain 
where the eye barely discovered a few floating specks in the air high above, and 
in less than half an hour there would be a number of vultures feeding on it. It is 
out of the question that smell can have anything to do with this, and we know 
from experiments that vultures will discover and descend on a stuffed carcase of 
an animal, whilst they will neglect one well hidden, although putrid and offensive. 
I do not mean to assert that their sense of sight is illimitable, and, in the cases 
in which I have myself experimented, I do not mean to imply that the very distant 
birds, that looked like specks, were those to discover the piece of fresh meat; but 
ever and anon a bird at a much lower elevation, but still very high above the earth, 
would sail past, keenly urged by hunger to a closer investigation, and on his espying 
the morsel, and moving towards it, others at a greater distance, urged by his motions, 
would descend lower, and on being certified themselves, perhaps on the ground 
near, would drop down in a series of oblique plunges till they reached the ground 
also. That vultures, however, have also a strong sense of smell is undeniable; 
many experiments are recorded to show this; and I have myself frequently seen 
them flying closely, and apparently in an excited and unusual manner, over a copse 
or thicket in which a putrefying carcase was placed." It is, however, only when 
