84 



The existence of this habit in the Lsemmer Geyer, more 

 than two thousand years ago, is, if not proved, at all events 

 rendered very probable, by the circumstances of the death of 

 the poet ^schylus, which occm-red in Sicily, B.C. 456, and 

 which are thus described in Dr, William Smith's " Dictionary 

 of Greek and Eoman Biography": — "On the manner of his 

 death, the ancient writers are unanimous. An eagle, say 

 they, mistaking the poet's bald head for a stone, let a tortoise 

 fall on it to break the shell." Probably this habit of the 

 Lsemmer-Geyer also suggested the ancient fable which exists 

 under various modifications of a tortoise being carried by an 

 eagle to see the world, &c. 



Mr. W. H. Simpson, whose observations on this species 

 in -^tolia are included in his notes on the ornithology of that 

 country, published in the second volume of the "Ibis," states 

 that the Lasmmer-Geyer obtains the contents from the interior 

 of marrow-bones in a similar manner "by taking them to a 

 great height and letting them fall upon a stone." 



The following account of the habits of this species in 

 Northern India was contributed by Mr. Hodgson to the foiu'th 

 volume of the " Jom-nal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal" : — 

 " The manners of this bii-d are decidedly more Yultiu'ine than 

 Aquiline. Ordinarily he is met with in gi'oups, or pairs, or 

 singly, without marked distinctions of habits in that respect ; 

 but the prospect of an abundant repast is siu-e to collect num- 

 bers of the species too voraciously intent upon satisfjTug the 

 craving of an appetite dej)endant for its gratification iq^on con- 

 tingencies, to admit of their betraying any of that shyness of 

 man which the aquiline race invariably manifest. If the flesh- 

 pots be exposed at Simla or Massuri, or elsewhere in the western 

 hills, it becomes necessary to keep a good watch upon them, 

 lest the Bearded Vulture steal a share of the contents, and the 

 offals and carrion carcases, fi'eely abandoned to him by our 

 European soldiery and by the peasantry, he rushes to devour, 

 almost heedless of the neighboui-hood of human kind." 



