Gould agreed that Britain was not 'a favourite place of resort for any of the Vultures...' but it was included among British birds because it sometimes reached England and had been recorded near Kilve, Somerset in 1825 and at Pledon, Essex in 1868. The latter vulture was sent to Gould for examination and Wolf depicted this immature bird in the illustration.

An unsigned crayon drawing of the adult bird's head and shoulders is among the notes and sketches in a notebook for The Birds of Great Britain, in the Natural History Museum Library, London. The adult is shown about two-thirds life-size and the darker young bird is also smaller than life.

DISTRIBUTION: Breeds northwest Africa and Iberia discontinuously east to southwest and south Asia, also Sahel zone of Africa. Western Palaearctic population winters mostly in Africa south of the Sahara. In Britain there are only two authenticated records; a bird shot in 1825, and another in 1868