File:The royal natural history (1893) (14781714741).jpg

Identifier: royalnaturalhist47lyde (find matches)
Title: The royal natural history
Year: 1893 (1890s)
Authors: Lydekker, Richard, 1849-1915 Sclater, Philip Lutley, 1829-1913 Frostick, W. B., former owner. DSI Brooks, W. T., former owner. DSI
Subjects: Zoology Natural history
Publisher: London and New York : Frederick Warne & Co.
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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rid and offensive.I do not mean to assert that their sense of sight is illimitable, and, in the casesin which I have myself experimented, I do not mean to imply that the very distantbirds, that looked like specks, were those to discover the piece of fresh meat; butever 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 espyingthe 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 groundnear, would drop down in a series of oblique plunges till they reached the groundalso. That vultures, however, have also a strong sense of smell is undeniable;many experiments are recorded to show this; and I have myself frequently seenthem flying closely, and apparently in an excited and unusual manner, over a copseor thicket in which a putrefying carcase was placed. It is, however, only when O :::
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VULTURES. 257 the birds are flying at a low elevation that they are able to detect such hidden carrion. Not uncommon in the Himalaya at all seasons, the cinereous vulture visits the plains of Northern India during the winter, and is in some districts one of the commonest of its tribe at that season. Some individuals are of much lighter colour than the typical form; but there is every gradation in the colour of the plumage from the one to the other. In Bulgaria the breeding-season commences early in March; and the young birds are described as ugly in the extreme, being covered wdth brownish grey down, and having a pink cere and pale yellow legs and feet. The second European representative of the true vultures is theGriffon Vultures. . , r-, n griffon vulture (Gyps fiilvus), of wdiich examples are shown on the right side of our plate. Together with several other species, it constitutes a genuscharacterised by the somewhat oval and transversely placed nostrils, by the lengthof the metata

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