EGYPTIAN VULTURE.
ALPINE VULTURE.
Neophron percnopterus, SAVIGNY. Vultur percnopterus, BEWICK. Cathartes percnopterus, TEMMINCK.
Neophron—Quaere, ne—Intensitive, and Osphraino—To smell. Percnopterus, percos, or percnos—Black, or spotted with black. Pteron—A wing.

This species is, as might be gathered from its name, most numerous in Africa, being met with from the Isthmus of Suez, Egypt, and Barbary, to the Cape of Good Hope. It is also widely spread throughout Europe, being found in Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, and Malta, and the other islands of the Mediterranean, Russia, in Turkey, very abundantly, though it has not thence acquired the name of its ally the Buzzard of that ilk, in Switzerland, Norway once, and other parts of this continent, and has occurred, but only on three occasions, as mentioned below, in England. It belongs also to Arabia, Persia, and India. Perhaps the more cleanly state of our towns, compared with those on the continent, may in some degree account for this infrequency, as making its presence as unnecessary to us as uncongenial to itself.
Two specimens of this bird, supposed to be a pair, were observed in Somersetshire, noar the shore of the Bristol Channel, in the month of October, in the year 1826—one of them was on the wing at the time, and was seen in the neighbourhood for a few days afterwards; the other was feeding on a dead sheep, and being either too hungry, or too sated to be disposed to leave it, was easily approached sufficiently near to be shot. It was preserved, and came into the possession of the Rev. A. Matthew, of Kilve, in the before-named county. A third occurred at Peldon, near Colchester, on September the 28th., 1868.
The Egyptian Vulture, like others of its tribe, delights and revels in the most decomposed carcases, the natural consequence of which is, as he who touches pitch will be defiled, a most disgusting odour from itself, and when dead it quickly putrefies. Occasionally it will feed on reptiles, frogs, lizards, and snakes, by way perhaps of a more delicate meal; and on small animals, as well as, it is said, birds, though quite exceptionally; sometimes, through lack of other food, it will 'follow the plough' for the sake of the worms and insects turned up by it, but its favourite haunt seems to be the sea-shore, where for the most part it finds its proper and legitimate sustenance in sufficient abundance. It also hangs about cantonments and camps.
'In the districts which this species inhabits, every group of the natives has a pair of these Vultures attached to it. The birds roost on the trees in the vicinity, or on the fences which bound the enclosure formed for their cattle. They are to a certain extent domiciled and harmless, The people do them no injury: on the contrary, they are rather glad to see and encourage them. The male and female seldom separate.
As before observed, it is extremely abundant on the northern shores of Africa, but becomes gradually less frequent as the latitude becomes higher. It is held in much and deserved respect in those countries of which it is a denizen, as acting gratuitously, through a benevolent arrangement of Providence, the part of a scavenger, by devouring all decaying animal substances which would otherwise still further putrefy, and rapidly become fruitful sources in those hot climates of pestilence, disease, and death. Its habits in fact are those of the other Vultures, except that it is of a more timid character. It is occasionally seen in small flocks; and is sometimes tamed.
It possesses great powers of flight, and often soars in airy circles to a great altitude, from whence with unerring precision it detects its food by sight, or scent, or some other sense. They walk with -a peculiar gait, lifting their legs very high from the ground. At rest, which is often for a long time, they sit with the wings drooped.
It rarely utters its cry.
The Egyptian Vulture builds on high and inaccessible precipices, in crevices and clefts of mountains, and lays from two to four eggs, which are generally white, or bluish white, but sometimes mottled a little with brown, and occasionally as much so as those of the Kestrel; they are widest in the middle, and taper towards each end. It makes its nest about the end of March, and the young are hatched late in May, but are said to remain in the nest until July, as they are not ready sooner to take flight. The parent birds attend them with great care, and feed them for the first four months.
The adult bird is about two feet seven inches in length. The bill, which is long and compressed, is brownish black or horn-coloured, its base bare of feathers, and reddish yellow, the tip bluish brown, the space between the bill and the eyes is covered with a white down; iris, red; front of the crown and cheeks also bare of feathers, and deep reddish; back of the crown, feathered with a sort of crest, which the bird has the power of raising when in any way excited; throat bare of feathers, and dull yellowish red, the feathers on the lower part of the neck, long and pointed. The whole of the rest of the plumage, white or yellowish white, with the exception of the greater quill feathers, which are black, and the bases of the secondaries, which are blackish brown, forming a dark bar across the wing. The wings expand to the width of five feet two inches. The tail is graduated, the middle feathers being three inches longer than the others. The legs are pale yellowish, and reticulated; the toes also partially scutellated, the middle one having five scales, and the outer and hinder ones, three each; the outer and middle ones are united at the base; the claws black, and not strongly hooked as in the Eagles, owing to the different use they are required for, as not being intended for the seizing or carrying off of prey.
The female resembles the male, but is larger.
In the young bird the whole plumage is of a dull greyish brown, with yellowish spots on the tips of the feathers; the quills black, as in the adult. As it advances in age, the dark parts of the plumage become of a rich purple brown, contrasting in a pleasing manner with the cream yellow of the other parts of the body.
The following is the description of a yearling bird, the age, as is believed, of the specimen before spoken of:—Bill, at the tip, of a dark horn-colour, the remainder yellowish; cere, which is thickest at the base, and reaches over half the length of the bill, greyish yellow; iris, red; (Meyer says that at a year old the iris is brown;) there are a few bristles on the edges of the bill, and between it and the eyes; crest, as in the adult bird. The head is covered with a bare skin of a deep reddish colour; the neck clothed with long hackle feathers, which form a kind of ruff of deep brown, tipped with cream-colour; and the nape with thick white down, interspersed with small black feathers. The chin has some tufts of hair beneath it. The back is cream white; the wings, five feet six to five feet nine inches in expanse; secondaries, pale brown, tipped and edged with yellowish white; larger wing coverts, deep brown, varied with cream white; lesser wing coverts, deep brown near the body, succeeded by lighter feathers, and these again by cream-coloured ones; tail, long and wedge-shaped; legs, yellowish grey; the middle toe has four scales on the last joint, and on each of the outer and inner ones three; the claws are blackish brown, and only slightly curved.
It has been suggested that the head and neck of Vultures being without feathers, is that the bird may be kept cleaner than, feeding on the kind of food it does, it would otherwise be; but I cannot at all admit the validity of this supposition, for the down would be at least as liable to be soiled as the feathers, and these latter are no detriment in this respect to the Eagles, which, as hereafter to be mentioned, feed on precisely the same kind of food.