2 77 
1921.] Birds of Tasso and adjoining Islands. 
*Gypohierax angolensis. Vulturine Sea-Eagle. 
A very common and conspicuous bird, and much liked by 
the natives for food. 
*Pandion haliaetus haliaetus. Osprey. 
Seen several times at the southern end of the island, where 
the natives have fish-traps. 
*Necrosyrtes monachus monachus. Hooded Vulture. 
Abundant in and around the village of Tasso. The dif¬ 
ference between these Vultures and those of British East 
Africa struck me as curious. We often shot Antelope and 
left them in a tree or by the roadside, and they were never 
molested ; whilst in British East Africa Vultures appear at 
once when game is killed, and, if not carefully guarded, 
soon commence to devour it. 
[An immature female specimen of this Vulture, no. 562, 
now in the British Museum, obtained by Mr. Lowe at 
Murray town, Sierra Leone, on 27 April, 1920, is in very 
peculiar “ head dress.” I have never seen any Vulture in 
this state of plumage, and, as I can find no description of it 
in any paper, I describe it as follows :—Skin of the head 
immediately above the eye and below the eye absolutely 
bare of feathers, the bare skin divided on the top of the 
head by very short black feathers growing in tiny hair-like 
tufts, these black feathers dividing and passing over the 
base of the skull so as to completely encircle a pure white 
fluffy tuft measuring 3b X 10 mm. Both the eyes and 
the ears are surrounded with black hair-like feathers. The 
hind neck, from the base of the occiput to the commence¬ 
ment of the long feathers on the nape, is covered with close, 
almost fur-like, buff-coloured feathers. The lower part of 
the throat and the under sides of the neck are entirely bare 
of feathers, and only the skin from the base of the lower 
mandible for a distance of 55 mm. is covered with numerous 
small black hair-like tufts. At the extreme base of the neck 
on the under surface, and below the bare patch, there is a 
patch of rather long dark brown feathers, dividing the bare 
