N E O PH R O N , O R EGYPTIAN VULTURE.
__________ Neophron percnopterus (Linn.).
NEOPHRON, or EGYPTIAN VULTURE.
NEOPHRON PERCNOPTERUS [Linn.).
Vultur percnopterus, Linn. S. N. i. p. 123 (1766); Hewitson,
i. p. 5.
Cathartes percnopterus, Naum. i. p. 170.
Neophron percnopterus, Macg. iii. p. 166; Yarr. ed. 4, i.
p. 6; Dresser, v. p. 391.
Vautor d’Egypte, French; Aas-Vogel, Aas-Geier, German;
Alimoche, Rejilero, Abanto, Quebrantahuesos, Grajo
bianco, Spanish.
This repulsive but most useful bird has occurred at
least on two occasions in England: in the first instance
two were seen, and one of them shot, in Somersetshire
in October 1825; the second occurrence is recorded by
Doctor C. Bree in the ‘ Zoologist’ for 1868 as having
taken place on the 28th of September of that year, near
Peldon in Essex ; all three birds seem to have been in
immature plumage. The Neophron is a summer visitor
to many parts of Southern Europe, and breeds occasionally,
to my personal knowledge, as far to the north as
the neighbourhood of Aix les Bains in Savoy. In
Spain, especially in Andalucia, this species is exceedingly
common. Colonel Irby, in his Ornithology of