VULTURES.
J. E. HARTING, in a letter to the Field of Sep-
tember 23rd, asks which is the largest bird which has the power of flight ? In the table of weights given the male bustard scales highest. But that of the giant vulture of the Andes, the condor, is not given in the list, probably because no one has had the curios ity to weigh it. If the two birds are compared when living, there can be little doubt that the vulture of the Cordilleras is the larger of the two. The mere flying apparatus to support its weight is nearly twice the size of that in the wing of the bustard. The wings are 9 ft. across, and the quills of the primary feathers in the condor are as thick as the base of a Lee-Metford cartridge.
If the greatest of all vultures is the largest bird which flies, their race can also claim to excel all the tribes of land birds in the actual power of flight. The albatross and a few other ocean birds alone rival them, and the albatrosses are, in effect, only the vultures of the ocean. Except perhaps the eagles, the vultures are also the longest lived. Even in confinement in this country they have lived beyond forty years ; and there must be at this moment on the Asian coasts of the Levant vultures which remember their great " trek " to feed on Rus- sian horses at Sebastopol, and lived to follow the English drums down the Nile Valley to the feast on the plains of Omdurman. This gathering of the vultures at great sieges has been noticed since the days of Helen of Troy :—
"novto,:s. ICVES 105? 7'eT nOVTal Tp41CeP."
The Arabs believed that all the vultures of North Africa left their native land and flew to Sebastopol, while it is known that at the siege of Delhi carrion birds never seen so far north came in flocks to the camp on the ridge, where they were encouraged as aids to its sanitation in the worst days of the Mutiny. Cities and civilisation have demoralised the vulture kind, and encouraged the meanest of the race. The oldest civilisation in the world has provided an easy living for the small Egyptian vultures—" Pharaoh's chickens "- and the vast slaughter of oxen on the pampas causes the disgusting gallinazo to increase and multiply. But these gorged scavengers of cities and estancias, perching
like birds of ill-omen on trees and towers, are not true re- presentatives of the natural habits of the great vultures of the hot countries. These are emphatically dwellers in the sky, inhabitants of the highest aerial plane to which birds ascend, where from sunrise till dark they spend their lives soaring in effortless suspension in the air, and watching for the signs and tokens of food below. No other land bird, except perhaps the swallow, is so incessantly on the wing. It is for this that its prod i0ons equipment of wing and feathers is given it ; and it is this mastery of the art of flight which redeems it from the place it would otherwise hold among the loathsome and repulsive objects of creation. It is this habit which decides which is the more probable explanation of its rapid discovery of food. All animals which hunt by scent seek to be near the object of their quest. Lucan's lines, describing how the bird- "Nare sagaci, Aera non sanum motumque cadavere sentit," suggest the quest of a dog, not of the soaring vulture, which, relying on its power of vision, mounts the sky and there commands a range of vision so wide that, following the move- ments of its fellows scattered over the same level of air, it learns where food is readyat a distance of half a province. The intense clearness of the dry air lends a power to sight in India inconceivable in our humid climate. A corpse floats down the Ganges, and strands upon a sandbank. A vulture sees this from an altitude at which it is practically beyond the range of human sight, and drops into view like a fragment from another planet, growing and broadening into the semblance of a bird.
The so-called "eagles' feathers" sold in great quantities for ladies' hats last season, proved to be vultures' feathers. They were clearly the feathers of some large raptorial bird, but all the eagles in Europe could hardly have yielded plumes saleable at a shilling each. At the present moment the fine collection of vultures at the Zoo have completed their autumn moult, and the beauty of their feathers explains whence these "eagle" plumes came, and why they were selected by those who cater for this branch of the plume trade. Even the bare-beaded vultures gain a certain splendour from this magnificent plumage. The Pondicherry vulture, for instance, is a very striking bird. The skin of the head is like pale pink sealing-wax, the eye dark, the beak like a billhook, not weak like those of most vultures. The panoply of broad feathers in which it is clad like armour is dark grey, creamy brown, and black, and the rounded tips of these feathers, edged with black, give it the appearance of being clad in scales of damasked steel. The legs are pale pink, and there is nothing to excite disgust in any part of its appearance. The cineroas vulture of Aden, as its name implies, is clad in rich brown, with which its pale soapstone- coloured legs contrast. The king vulture of Central America is famous for the beauty of its plumage, which may now be seen in perfection at the Zoo. Of the two birds there, one has been in the Gardens since 1893. The other was brought there as a nestling covered with down, and reared by the keeper of the insect-house. It was a very clever, sensible bird„ and became tamer than any other species which the writer has seen except the parrots. It would pretend to be dead when told to, and if it was scolded always laid its head upon the ground in token of contrition. Its first snit of feathers was black; now it has the brilliant orange and pink wattles, pearl-coloured eye, grey, pink, black, and fawn colour of the adult plumage. The cleverness and docility of the tame vulture is in striking contrast to the dullness and mechanical minds of the hawks and eagles. The quicker brain is not confined to the king vulture, as both the griffon and the black vulture are easily tamed. One of the latter kept in England, but not at the Zoo, goes through an elaborate process of nest- building every year ; she also dances, with elaborate spread- ings of the wings and tail, and when asking for food lays the top of her head on the ground, looking the picture of humility and supplication.
Some vultures leave the neighbourhood of cities when the nesting time approaches, and go to swamps and forests, where they build in high trees. But the chosen breeding place of most of the large species is in the precipices of the great mountain ranges both of Southern Europe, Africa, and Asia Minor. The nest of the griffon vulture is found as far north as Tyrol, in the cliffs of the Dobrudscha, where the Danube leaves the last high ground on its course, and in the mountains of Spain. Of the whole tribe it is the most striking in appearance, and, except the king vulture, the most elegant in its plumage. The head is not bare, but covered with short glistening white down. The hazel eye is bright and clear, the beak sharp, and the stretch of wing enormous. Round the neck runs a white ruff, and the plumage is a clear tawny and cream colour. This was the bird which, sailing from its nest in the mountain cliffs, suggested the thought of the everlasting torments of the Titan chained to the Caucasian rock.
It is possible that in coarse of time the range of the vulture may diminish as civilisation spreads. It ought to be an un- necessary bird, and should disappear, as the kite disappeared from London, when cleanliness and sanitation are universal. The true carrion vultures could not find a living in any number in Europe north of the Pyrenees, and it is possible that Lord Cromer may live to see Egypt so far reformed that Pharaoh's chickens" may take to cleaner ways, and live on frogs and reptiles. The practical argument for the pro- tection of the vulture is based on the quickness with which all animal matter putrefies in hot countries. If an animal dies in the fields its carcase is practically useless, and in a few hours so offensive that no human being would undertake to bury it. The vultures then come on the scene, and remove all the offensive matter with incredible speed. They are the only public scavengers who never fail to call punctually and get their work finished in the shortest possible time.
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