192 ANIMALS AT WORK AND PLA Y 



10 ft. from tip to tip, and the beak, which is 

 from 4^- to 5^- in. long, is modelled for seizing 

 and biting, like that of the cormorant. Its 

 powers of swallowing and of digestion are as 

 remarkable as its physical strength. The stomach 

 of one was found to contain the large iliac bone of 

 a cow, the thigh of a chamois, a chamois's ribs half 

 digested, a quantity of small bones, fur, and the 

 claws of a blackcock. Instances of attacks made on 

 man by these birds when engaged in defending their 

 nests are numerous ; and, considering the size of the 

 lammergeier, and the advantage of position from which 

 it delivers its onset on the human biped, crawling up 

 or down the face of a precipice, it would be strange 

 if such experiences did not occur. In the canton of 

 Claris a turpentine gatherer climbed to an eyrie, and 

 took two young lammergeiers, which he tied by the 

 legs and slung over his back, while he climbed down 

 the precipice. There he was attacked by the old 

 birds, who, though they did not succeed in throwing 

 him from the rocks, followed him for four miles 

 to the village of Schwanden. Joseph Scherrer, a 

 hunter, shot a male lammergeier, and was climbing 

 to the nest when the female flew up, and settled on 

 his back, driving her claws in deep, and trying with 

 furious backward beats of the wings, to drag him 

 from the face of the rock. The man's gun was 



