4 
VULTURID^E. 
that lie has, nevertheless, often risked his life to examine 
the eggs and young birds, and with the aid of his Hotten¬ 
tots has sometimes overcome all the difficulties, although 
the approach to their retreat is so slippery as greatly to 
increase the danger, and the den itself indescribably 
disgusting. Le Vaillant says, that the Griffon Vultures 
are more conspicuous than the fOricou, and are very 
easily seen upon the rocks at the entrance of their holes, 
and that it is a pretty sight to watch a troop of them 
covering a whole chain of mountains and to see them, 
on the report of a gun, heavily take flight together and 
rise in circles in the air. He says that the eggs are 
bluish white, that he has often eaten them, and found 
them tolerably good. The egg from which my figure is 
taken was laid at Knowsley, and presented to Mr. Wolley, 
who has kindly trusted it to my care. Others have been 
laid at the Jardin des Plantes in Paris. 
Mr. Yarrell says, that “ in Sardinia, and some other 
countries, this Vulture makes a large nest of three or four 
feet in diameter on high trees, and lays two, or sometimes 
three, elongated white eggs.” 
