280 NATURAL HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



commanding tree, giving a wide outlook over river and forest. Its plumage is mainly 

 snowy white, the wings and tail alone being mostly black, the latter with a broad ter- 

 minal white band. The legs and feet are pink, and the bare skin about the head 

 flesh-colored. Though it ordinarily lives on carrion it has been known to stoop at 

 living prey, Mr. H. T. Ussher having shot one in the act of striking a kid tethered in 

 the woods as a bait for a leopard. 



The bearded-vulture or Lammergeyer. Gypaetus barbatus, is one of the most noted 

 of all the birds of prey, holding much the same place with regard to the Pyrenees, Alps, 

 and Himmalehs that the condor holds in the Andes. 



A bird of magnificent proportions and savage aspect, it is nevertheless much less 

 harmful than many of the smaller eagles, though tradition accuses it of the most 

 daring attacks on chamois, mountain goats, and even mountaineers themselves. The 

 mode of attack commonly ascribed to it as follows : Watching stealthily for an 

 unguarded moment, when its victim is near the edge of a precipice, it sweeps down 

 with tremendous velocity, and, by the force of its rush, followed up perhaps by blows 

 of the wings, forces its half-stunned and bewildered quarry over the brink, afterwards 

 descending itself to feast at leism-e on the lifeless body. 



Dresser, in his " Birds of Europe," says of this habit : " Many of these accounts 

 are greatly exaggerated. It partakes far more of the vulture in its habits than of the 

 eagle, feeds on carrion and such refuse as it can pick up, sometimes doubtless attack- 

 ing weakly lambs or catching mountain hares. There are, however, authentic records 

 of its having attacked children when impelled by hunger." 



Mr. Salvin, who found several pairs breeding in the Atlas range in northern 

 Africa, says that their food there consisted principally of land-tortoises, Testudo 

 mauritanica, which they carried to some height in the air, letting them fall on a stone 

 to break the shell. 



Another observer, writing of its habits in Greece, says : " The Lammergeyer may 

 be observed floating slowly at a uniform level close to the cliffs of some deep ravine, 

 where his shadow is perhaps projected on the wall-like rocks. If the ravine has 

 salient and re-entering angles, he does not cut across from point to point, but pre- 

 serves the same distance from the cliff, and when he disappears at any lateral fissure, 

 you feel sure of the very spot where he will emerge on turning the corner of the 

 precipice. Marrow-bones are the dainties he loves the best, and when the- other 

 vultures have picked the flesh off any animal he comes in at the end of the feast and 

 swallows the bones, or breaks them and swallows the pieces if he cannot get the 

 marrow out otherwise. The bones he cracks by taking them to a great height and 

 letting them fall upon a stone. This is probably the bird that dropped a tortoise on 

 the bald head of poor old ^Eschylus." 



In color the adult male Lammergeyer shows strong contrasts, most of the under 

 parts and the neck being rich, light rusty yellow ; the wings, back, and tail blackish 

 brown with white shaft-streaks ; the forehead and crown creamy white, the sides of 

 the head and a bunch of long black bristles on the chin jet black. The iris is pale 

 orange, but the sclerotic membrane is blood red, giving the bird an almost diabolical 



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look when excited. Full grown individuals range from three to four feet in length, 

 and have an extent of wings of nine or ten feet. 



The bulky nest is usually placed in some inaccessible cleft or cavern in the face of 

 a cliff, and the single egg (rarely one more) is dull yellow, clouded or washed with 

 rusty. The birds are much sought after on account of their feathers, and their nests 



