VULTURES. 15 



to the ancients under the name of the " bone-breaker " {Osstfraga). 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 correspondent with such roc-hke dimensions. A distin- 

 guished naturahst, however, Picot la Perouse, who has observed these species 

 in the Pyrenees, and described it very carefully, considerably reduces the 

 magnitude attributed to it by earlier writers. He gives it the following dimen- 

 sions : 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 hairs, forming a 

 true beard an inch and a half in length : it is from this last extraordinary ap- 

 pendage that its specific r\a.me—darl>aius, bearded — is derived. As may be 

 easily imagined, a bird of such proportions, and possessing an appetite cor- 

 respondent with its size, is terribly destructive to the flocks that pasture in the 

 Alpine valleys, where it wages cruel war on sheep, lambs, she-goats, and even 

 calves ; while the chamois, the hare, the marmot, and other wild quadrupeds 

 also become its victims ; even children,* occasionally, have been the objects 

 of the indiscriminating rapacity of these marauders ; and man himself is not 

 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 diameter. 

 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. 



Sub-Family IT. 



THE CONDORS. SARCORAMPHIN^.f 



General Characteristics. — Bill lengthened and rather slender, with the basal 

 portion more or less covered with a soft cere ; the apical part strong, much curved, 

 and acutely hooked at the tip ; nostrils placed in the cere, with the opening large, 

 exposed, oblong, and longitudinal ; wings lengthened and pointed ; tarsi long and 

 covered with small reticulated scales ; the middle toe lengthened, the lateral ones 

 short, equal, and united with the middle toe by a membrane ; hind toe generally 

 short and ^\•eak. 



The sub-family of the Condors embraces birds met with in 

 countries very remote from each other, and differing much in 

 size, but agreeing in their appetite for carrion. Some of them 

 {Neophron) are found in Africa and India, where they Hve in large 

 flocks, and in Egypt, where they are held in great respect, on 

 account of the services they render to the country by purifying 



* In 1819 these birds were numerous in Saxe-Gotha. They killed two children, and 



Government was induced to offer a reward for their destruction. 



■f GQ.p^, (rapKos, sarx, sarcos, Jhs/i ; pafLcpos, ramphos, a crooked beak. 



