GYPS.
Head bare or covered with down; nostrils exposed, oval and perpendicular; wings long and rounded, tail rounded, 14 feathers; food, carrion ; soar at great altitudes; nest usually in communities in cliffs; egg one, white, rarely marked red.
Gyps fulvus fulvus (HablizI). GRIFFON VULTURE. Fr. Vautour griffon ; Ger. Gansegeier ; Ital. Grifone.
9 adult. Above pale brown, head covered with white hairs, neck with a white downy ruff; underparts red brown.
Bill slate. Legs and feet light brown. Iris hazel. Cere dark slate. Wing 690-750 (Ii.). Tarsus 90-110. Bill 68. Young : more rufous, head and neck covered with white clown, ruff replaced by frill of long narrow feathers, reddish brown with buff shafts.
Resident.—Mediterranean Basin and Islands, north to Pyrenees, N. Italy, S. Hungary, Rumania ; S. Russia to Caucasus ; also S.W. Asia to Himalayas and in Red Sea Basin. Once occurred
1 reland.
1EGYPIUS.
Bill higher than broad ; nares round ; head and throat covered with down, neck naked at sides and back ; nest in tree ; eggs white marked with red.
.Mgypius monachus (L.). BLACK VULTURE. Ger. Monchsgeier ; //a/. Avvoltoio.
8. 4 Dark brown ; down on head and throat brownish white ; naked neck livid blue ; round neck a ruff of long pale brown feathers. Bill dark horn, paler below. Cere bluish. Legs and feet pearly white. Iris hazel. Wing 760-840. Tarsus 130. Bill from cere to tip 61-67 (II.).
and Portugal, N. Morocco, Sardinia, Sicily, S.E. Europe from Austria and Hungary to Balkans ; Crimea, Caucasus and north to Orenburg ; Egypt ; and widely in Asia.