282 Mr. W. H. Simpson^s Oniithological Notes 



suddenly slacken, and heard a cry from beneath. It took him 

 nearly an hour to reach the foot of the pi-ecipice, and there 

 he found his unfortunate comrade^ severely injured, but still 

 alive. No one knew how the accident had happened, as the man 

 himself was unable to give any account of it up to the time 

 when I left Mesolonghi, where he lay in the military hospital, 

 with a fair chance of recovery. In such a lonely spot some 

 time elapsed before assistance could be obtained, and then the 

 natives haggled over the bleeding and almost senseless body for 

 the amount of the reward they were to receive on carrying him 

 down to iEtolico. 



The Lammergeyer {Gypaetus barbatus) is not numerous in this 

 mountain. Only one pair was actually recognized, though a 

 single adult bird was occasionally observed in the Grand Gorge, 

 where, amongst the holes high in the upper tier of cliffs, he 

 may have had an eyry. This is'decidedly a scarce bird through- 

 out Western Greece : in all the Raptorial districts I have visited, 

 its proportion to V. fulvus is very small indeed ; yet, wherever 

 there is any large colony of the latter, a pair of G. barbatus 

 may be looked for, and generally in the deepest hole on the 

 shady side of the most inaccessible rock. He is not a demon- 

 strative bird, like the Griffon, who may be seen sailing about at 

 a great height in the air, sometimes alone, but more often in 

 troops of from half a dozen to fifty, revolving in endless circles 

 round each other, that no corner may remain unseen. The 

 Lammergeyer, on the contrary, 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 preserves the same distance from the 

 cliff; and when he disappears in 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 ani- 

 mal, 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 pro- 



