158 POPULAR SCRIPTURE ZOOLOGY.

There are many species ;—such as the Vultur awricularis,
or Sociable Vulture, inhabiting the greater part of Africa ;
its head and the greater portion of the neck are red and
naked; the throat is covered with blackish hairs, and the
lower part clothed with a ruff of black curling feathers ;
the plumage of the body, wings, and tail, is of a dark
brown colour, rather lighter beneath, and showing the pure
white down with which the body is closely covered. This
bird measures ten feet across the expanded wings; the
female builds her nest in the fissures of rocks, and lays
only two or three eggs. The size of this species renders it
a fit instrument for clearing its native country of the re-
mains of the large mammalia which are its inhabitants, the
elephant, hippopotamus, giraffe, etc.; and no sooner has
death seized its prey, than the vultures assemble in pro-
digious numbers, and soon clear the earth and air from the
taint of the rapidly decomposing body.

The Egyptian Vulture (Neophron perenopterus) is the
smallest of the tribe, and inhabits the shores of the Medi-
terranean. The front of the head and the upper part of
the throat are bare, and of a yellow colour; the plumage
white, excepting the quill feathers, which are black ; legs,
feet, and bill yellow; the tip of the latter being black.