The Egyptian Vulture, sometimes known as Pharaoh's Hen, is the smallest of the vultures. The plumage is white; the head, throat, and fore part of the neck are naked and of a lemon-yellow colour; whilst the feet are pink and the eyes crimson. Not only is it a carrion-feeder, but it will also follow the plough, picking up worms and grubs. This species occurs in Europe, breeding in Provence and Savoy, the Madeiras, Cape Verde, the Canaries, North and South Africa, and India. On three occasions it has wandered to Great Britain.
We pass now to the Eagles, a group the exact limits of which it is impossible to define, since the forms so designated merge insensibly into Buzzards, Hawks, Harriers, and so forth.
Eagles occur all over the world, save only in New Zealand. An eagle, it is interesting to note, is the bird of Jove, the emblem of St. John and Rome, and at the present day of the American Republic. It also plays an emblematic part in Germany, Austria, and Russia.
Photo by Scholastic Photo. Co.] [Parson's Green.
RÜPPELL'S VULTURE.
An African species, closely allied to the griffon.
Of the true eagles, perhaps the best known is the Golden Eagle, or Mountain-eagle—a British bird, breeding still, though in diminishing numbers, in Scotland. In Ireland it is fast verging on extinction, trap, gun, and poison having wrought its destruction. In times past it bred in the Lake District of England. Abroad it is found over the greater part of Europe, Northern Asia, India and China, and Northern Africa, and America as far south as Mexico. It is a very fierce and powerful bird, attacking such large animals as antelopes, wolves, and foxes, as well as the more helpless fawns, lambs, hares and rabbits, and ducks, geese, grouse, and so on.
Photo by Scholastic Photo. Co.] [Parson's Green.