ty white, except the tips of the wings, which are black.
The head is not bald, as is the case with most vultures; it is covered
with projecting feathers that form an exceedingly bedraggled crest.
The bill, the naked face, and the legs are yellow. This vulture is
popularly known as the shawk or Pharaoh's chicken. Young scavenger
vultures are sooty brown.

The other three vultures common on the Nilgiris are the Pondicherry
vulture (_Otogyps calvus_), the long-billed vulture (_Gyps indicus_),
and the white-backed vulture (_Pseudogyps bengalensis_). The first
is easily identified by means of its white waistcoat, a patch of white
on the thighs, and large red wattles that hang down like the ears
of a blood-hound. With the above exceptions the plumage is black.

The long-billed vulture is of a uniform brown-grey colour.

The white-backed vulture is a dark brown, almost black, bird, with
a white back and a broad white band on the under surface of each wing,
which is very noticeable when the bird is soaring high in the air
on the watch for carrion.

The two commonest vultures of the Nilgiris are the scavenger and the
white-backed species.

THE FALCONIDAE OR FAMILY OF BIRDS OF PREY

The raptores are not very strongly represented on the Nilgiris. The
only two eagles likely to be seen are Bonelli's eagle (_Hieraetus
fasciatus_) and the black eagle (_Ictinaetus malayensis_). The
plumage of the latter is of much darker hue than that of the former.

Bonelli's eagle is a bold bird that works great havoc among tame
pigeons. It sometimes carries off a barnyard fowl.

The black eagle is content with smaller quarry: young birds, rats,
and snakes, seem to constitute the chief articles of its diet.

Needless to state, the common pariah kite (_Milvus govinda_) is found
on the Nilgiris. This useful bird usually sails in graceful circles
high overhead, looking for food. Its cry is not heard so frequently
on those hills as in the Himalayas, the reason being the different
configuration of the two ranges. The Nilgiris are undulating and
downlike, hence the kites are able, while hovering higher than the
summits of the hills, to see what is happening in the valleys. In
the Himalayas they cannot do this, because the valleys are usually
deep. The kites, therefore, sail there at a lower level than the
hill-tops, and their plaintive _chee-hee-hee-hee-hee_ is heard
throughout the day. It is not a very cheerful sound, so that in this
respect