416 MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 



towns or the sporting trophies in country-houses are examined, 

 one very frequently finds in the western provinces of the 

 kingdom stuffed specimens of the Griffon, but very seldom 

 of the Cinereous Vulture. What is the reason of this ? 



From what I have seen and heard, I believe that I have 

 good grounds for maintaining that the Griffon Vulture is now, 

 as already said, engaged in a vast migration, and is occupied 

 in extending the area of its distribution. 



Certain species of animals change their habitats in the 

 course of time, but their reasons for so doing are as yet 

 unknown to us, and the investigation of these causes offers 

 splendid employment to students of the animal world. 



According to my ideas, this vulture is drawing nearer 

 and nearer to the Alps. It has already taken up its abode in 

 the Karawanken to the south of Klangenfurt, and from there 

 it will spread further towards the north and west. In the 

 eastern and central Alps it is, as it were, replacing the Bearded 

 Vulture, which has now, alas ! almost entirely disappeared. 



I may also mention, as an interesting fact, that the Egyptian 

 Vulture (Neophron percnopterus) regularly breeds in Switzer- 

 land, and that one or two of its nests are situated on a 

 mountain close to Geneva. In the museum of that town I 

 saw specimens that were killed in that locality, and one of 

 the Curators informed me that this bird still breeds there 

 .every year and invariably on the same mountain. 



