A Very Early Nester Ait 
have heard of eggs being taken in Christmas week. Dr. Stark 
took perfectly fresh eggs on 31 January and on another occasion 
eggs on the point of hatching on 4 February. The mildness or 
the reverse of the season and the altitude of the nest above the sea 
have apparently nothing to do with the variations in time of laying, 
despite the protestations of the goatherds who are ever emphatic 
on these two points. No better proof of this could be adduced 
than Dr. Stark’s experiences, for, when he took the freshly-laid 
eggs on 31 January it was in a very mild season when the snow- 
line was fully 1,000 feet higher up the sierra than when he found 
the hard-set eggs in the same locality on 4 February—in an 
exceptionally severe spring. 
When I was with Crown Prince Rudolf in the A/7vamar, he had 
with him two young Bearded Vultures, one just emerging from the 
down stage and a second three-parts grown, taken from nests in the 
Sierra Nevada. One of these birds was a full month if not six 
weeks older than the other, showing the irregularity of their dates 
of laying. From all I have seen and heard [| think from 1 January 
to 15 February may be taken as about their usual period for laying 
eggs. 
In all my wanderings after wild birds there was no species which 
so persistently defeated me in my object of obtaining its eggs or of 
photographing its nest and young than did the Bearded Vulture. 
Year followed year and although every season | managed to locate 
a few pairs at widely separated places, all my exertions were doomed 
to failure. Thus, one year I would find myself too early and 
another year too late. Some years owing to bad weather and the 
impossibility of travelling in the sierra in rain and mist, let alone 
climbing dangerous cliffs, a well-organized expedition would end in 
total failure and ignominious retreat. 
True, had I on such occasions elected to remain out in my 
mountain quarters a few days longer, | should undoubtedly have 
