484 ORNITHOLOGICAL SKETCHES 



Vulture. It was an adult that had already been long in 

 confinement, and was so tame that it quietly allowed itself 

 to be touched. Its plumage as it generally does in cap- 

 tivity had lost the beautiful bright yellow, and both breast 

 and belly had turned silver-grey, while the dark black feathers 

 had also become greyer. I saw a similar specimen in the 

 Jardin des Plantes at Paris. 



Both my captive Bearded Vultures, the old bird as well as 

 the young one, bore the sea-voyage quite well, but in rough 

 weather they took no food. The diet that suited them best 

 was dead creatures of all sort, with the skin, hair, or 

 feathers left on, which go to form their castings. Bones, 

 however, are their favourite delicacy, and my old bird 

 crushed the strongest beef-bones with incredible strength. 

 One day I put a live rabbit into his cage. Like lightning 

 he seized the poor beast with one foot, but did not squeeze it 

 in the least, for he was quite sated, and only wanted to play 

 with it. The game, however, turned out a somewhat grim 

 one : for with his sharp beak he worked up and down the 

 unlucky rabbit, and literally shore the whole fur from its body 

 right up to its forehead. This he swallowed, and then let 

 the animal slip out between the bars of the cage, clean-shaved, 

 but otherwise uninjured. 



My Bearded Vulture was perfectly tame and quite com- 

 posed under all circumstances. I never saw him either excited 

 or frightened. He did not pay the slightest attention to dogs, 

 even when they came close up to him, nor was he alarmed at 

 the bustle on deck, and when anybody approached him he 

 seemed particularly pleased and at once stretched out his head. 

 In the repose and deliberation of his movements he struck 

 me as differing greatly from the many eagles which I have 

 either kept myself or seen in confinement; for he had none of 

 the vivacity or irritability which is daily exhibited even by 



