416 Brig.-Gen. H. R. KeWxam— Field- Notes 



On the wing the Lammergeyer is easily identified, even at 

 a considerable distance, by its long pointed wings, very wedge- 

 shaped tail, and even, gliding flight — an occasional flap, and 

 with scarcely another movement of its wings it sails along, 

 skimming close over the ground, following every undulation 

 of the hillside as it works backwards and forwards in long 

 *' l)eats," and searching every fold of the ground for food. 



During the spring I found it numerous in the Murree 

 Hills (10,000 feet), and I knew of a nesting-place in 

 Changla Gully. In my diary is : — 



"Changla Gully, N.W. Himalayas, 4th May, 1896. 

 This evening the sunset was glorious beyond description, the 

 sun sinking in a glow of light over the * perpetual snows ' of 

 Kashmir, crimson, fading to rose, purple, and every conceiv- 

 able tint, while brilliant flashes of lightning played round 

 the snowy summit of Nanga Parbat (27,000 feet) and other 

 Himalayan giants. The Great Bearded Vulture is quite in 

 keeping with this grand scenery. This evening while 

 sitting among the highest peaks round Changla, admiring 

 the view, several of these huge birds came sailing close 

 past me : my dog seemed to excite them, for many, as 

 they swooped by, uttered hoarse croaks, others settled on a 

 dead pine close below, in fact they were unusually confiding 

 and gave me an exceptional chance of studying tiiem." 



They breed early in the year in caves on the face of the 

 most inaccessible crags, often where the cliS" is overhanging, 

 so that the approach from above is almost as difficult as that 

 from below. 



During the winter of 1887, while chamois-stalking among 

 the Sirmoor mountains, I found several nesting-places, and 

 in the early spring of the next year three pairs of these birds 

 bred in some very precipitous cliffs twelve miles east of 

 Dagshai, where they doubtless still nest. Tliese clifl's were 

 very " happy hunting-grounds" of mine. One January day, 

 dull and snowy, I was stalking chamois, and when in rather 

 a fix, on a very nasty piece of cliff", discovered a Bearded 

 Vulture's eyrie. At the time 1 was near a huge beetling 

 crag, in a crevice of Avhich was the nesting- place : it was 



