408 The Bearded Vulture 
to the world, Switzerland and the Tyrol, it has been since medieval 
times invested with almost supernatural powers, from killing adven- 
turous chamois-hunters or boys who sought to rob their nests, by 
knocking them off cliffs, to carrying off infants and, in its milder 
moments, preying upon chamois and sheep which it slew and 
carried off in mid-air to its eyrie in some appalling cliff, many 
thousands of feet high. Since it was popularly credited with 
directly causing the death of the sheep, goats, kids and lambs, 
which undoubtedly form its main food, it earned the title of Lam- 
mergeyer = lamb-vulture, and it is this name which is still 
applied to it by the majority of people. Those who advocate the 
other name maintain that the great bird is vulturine in its habits, 
ze., never kills the beasts it feeds upon but simply resorts 
to the carcasses of those which have fallen from the cliffs or 
which have died of injuries or starvation due to their having 
been imprisoned in some spot whence escape was impossible. 
They also declare that the structure of the bird’s foot does not 
lend itself to carrying its prey for any distance, but of this I shall 
speak later. The late Dr. Stark, who to my knowledge had 
exceptional opportunities of watching these birds in Europe, boldly 
asserted that in habits and feeding they were little better than 
the Egyptian Vulture, a cruel charge against such a noble-looking 
bird but of which the truth is I fear incontrovertible. 
The opponents of the name Bearded Vulture pointed out how 
the bird was not a true Vulture and cited various points such as 
its well-feathered head and legs. The other school retorted by 
calling attention to the distinctly vulturine beak, and to the foot 
which approaches much nearer that of the Vulture with its long 
central toe and blunter claws thaa the Eagle’s, and further justified 
the descriptive accuracy of their name in that the bird has a beard 
consisting of a tuft of black bristly feathers below its beak, ever 
most conspicuous, and argued that since its general appearance, 
