500 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOGIETY,Vol.XVUl. 



It will be interesting if Mr. Kinloch succeeds in getting the egg of this bird 

 as he hopes to do, and if it proves to be similar to the egg which has been 

 brought to me or not. The following is a description of it : — 



Dirty white, rather rough, speckled and spotted all over with grey, brick- 

 red and dark brown, the spots forming a cap at the larger end. 

 Size 2*65 inches x 1*85 inches. 



T. F. BOURDILLON. 

 Quilon, Travancorr, 13th August 1907. 



No. XV— NOTE ON THE BEARDED VULTURE (GYPAETUS 

 BARBATUS) OR " LAMMERGEYER ". 



I am sending for the Museum the stuffed head and neck of the Bearded 

 Vulture or Lammergeyer. I shot this bird on the 22nd of last month as it 

 was trying to capture one of my fowls. I was so much pressed for time, I 

 am sorry to say, that I was unable to preserve the entire bird. The specimen 

 I send however is a very good one. The head, neck, and bill with the distin- 

 guishing beard, all show well, the plumage being in good order. 



This bird was a female, and its measurements agreed exactly with those of 

 Jerdon's which give length four feet, expanse of wings nine-and-a-half feet. 

 On dissecting it, I found two half developed eggs on which no shell had yet 

 formed. According to Jerdon it lays in April or May/ 5 The bird must have 

 been feeding recently on a Gooral, for I found a quantity of Gooral hair in 

 its stomach, and also the fractured shoulder blade of the same beast. Jerdon 

 says, in his description of the Bearded Vulture, and its habits : " It is said to 

 hurl Chamois, and even the Himalayan Ovis ammon off precipitous cliffs by a 

 sudden swoop, and to feed on the mangled carcases." He adds that in the 

 stomach of one killed by him in Kashmir he found several large bones, 

 together with the hoof of an Ibex. 



The statement that the Bearded Vulture hurls animals over the tremendous 

 precipices of the Himalayas is, I think, proved by the fact that the Gooral's 

 shoulder blade I found in the stomach of the bird killed by me was broken 

 in two pieces, as though from a fall, for it is impossible that the bird could 

 have done this with its bill. 



It is probable that the Lammergeyer keeps a good look out for such animals 

 as may fall, or be thrown over the precipices of the mountains which it 

 frequents. I remember a sad accident which happened a few years ago, when 

 two officers were shooting on the Himalayan ranges. One of them was 

 following up a wounded bear which suddenly charged, knocking him, and his 

 shikari over the precipice, the impetus of the charge carrying the bear over as 

 well. His companion who was observing all this from the top of the mountain, 

 and who told me the story of the accident very shortly after it happened, 

 mentioned that it took him about four hours to get down to the foot of the 



[* According to Blanford (Fauna of British India, Birds) the " Lammergeyer " breeds 

 ''in the Himalayas from November to March."— Eds.] 



