90 BIRDS OF TUNISIA 



Noble and dignified as this bird is in its appearance, and m 

 its flight, it appears to be the reverse in its instincts and general 

 behaviour, being indeed cowardly and timid, incapable of showing 

 light, or of resisting the attacks of other birds of prey its inferior 

 in size. Even the maternal instinct, which should prompt it to 

 defend its young, seems to be wanting in this bird, as it will allow 

 its eyrie to be approached and despoiled, without venturing to 

 attack the intruder, or showing any resistance, Ijut flying ofl' and 

 leaving the coast clear. Its chief food seems to be carrion, though 

 it is said at times to seize weakly lambs or kids, and other 

 smaller animals and birds alive. According to Mr. Salvia, its food 

 in the Eastern Atlas " consists principally of the land tortoises 

 (Testudo mauritanica) , which abound throughout the country. These 

 it carries to some height into the air, and lets fall on a stone to 

 break the shell." The poet /Eschylus is said to have been killed by 

 a tortoise having been dropped on his bald head by one of these 

 birds ! 



This Vulture's Spanish name of " Quebrantahuesos" or "Bone- 

 breaker," Colonel Irby tells us, is applied to the bird from its well- 

 known habit of dropping bones from a great height on to the rocks 

 below, in order to break them up into fragments small enough to 

 be swallowed. 



The breeding-season of this Vulture in Europe and North-west 

 Africa is an early one, apparently commencing in February or even 

 in January, and in the Himalayas, according to Mr. A. 0. Hume, 

 it is still earlier, eggs of the species having been met with on 

 December 4ih. 



The site usually chosen tor the eyrie is a hollow or cave in some 

 precipitous cliff or sheer precipice, often quite inaccessible, and almost 

 invariably so without the aid of ropes and other appliances. The 

 eyrie itself is very bulky, being composed of sticks and twigs, with 

 a lining of wool or other soft material. Erlanger mentions an eyrie 

 found by him in Tunisia, which was composed of Haifa-grass. The 

 eggs, which are generally two in number, are either of a rusty orange 

 colour, or of a dull yellowish-ochre ; they measure about 78 X (38 

 mm., and specimens from eastern countries are, as a rule, larger than 

 those from West Europe and North-west Africa. 



Baron v. Erlanger has described the Bearded Vulture of the Atlas 

 region as a distant subspecies under the name of Gijpactus burbalus 



