18 ACCIPITKES. 



in the Eastern hemisphere. Its usual mode of killing 

 the animals that constitute its food is to drive them 

 over the edge of some precipitous cliff, and devour their 

 remains when shattered by the fall : hence it was 

 known to tlie ancients under the name of the "bone- 

 l^reaker " (ossifraga). From the descriptions given of 

 this formidable bird, it is not to be wondered at that 

 much exaggeration has crept into its history. Fourteen, 

 and even eighteen, feet in the extent of its wings have 

 been ' attributed to the Lammer Geyer, and an amount of 

 strength corresf)ondent with such Roc-like dimensions. 

 A distinguished naturalist, however, Picot la Perouse, 

 who has observed this species in the Pyrenees, and de- 

 scribed it very carefully, considerably reduces the magni- 

 tude attributed to it by earlier writers. He gives it the 

 folloAving dimensions : — Extent across the wings, eight 

 feet and a half ; total length, three feet ten inches ; 

 weight, about ten pounds. The beak is four inches long ; 

 it is covered above at its base as far as the centre with 

 numerous long black hairs directed forwards, while 

 underneath hangs a tuft of similar haii-s forming a true 

 beard an inch and a half in length : it is from this last 

 extraordinary appendage that its specific name, barbatus, 

 bearded, is derived. As may easily be imagined, a bird 

 of such proportions, and possessing an appetite corre- 

 spondent with its size, is terribly destiiictive to the flocks 

 that pasture in the Al})ine valleys, where it wages ciaiel 

 war on sheep, lambs, she-goats, and even calves ; while 

 the chamois, the hare, the marmot, and other wild qua- 

 drupeds, also become its victims ; even children,* occa- 

 sionally, have been the objects of the indiscriminating 

 ra^^acity of these marauders ; and man himself is iiot safe 

 should he incautiously approach their wild retreats. 



The nest of the Lammer Geyer is usually built on the 

 most inaccessible heights, and constructed of larch- 

 branches intertwined with wool, hair, and feathers ; its 

 surface is flat, and its superficies about four feet in dia- 

 meter. Upon this nest, or rather platform, the female 

 deposits two or three eggs of a bluish- white colour, spotted 

 with reddish-brown or ochreous yellow. 



* In 1819 these birds were numerous in Saxe Gotha. They 

 killed two children, and Government was induced to offer a reward 

 for their destruction. 



