CLASS 11. AVE S: O RDER 1 . RAPTOR ES. 51 



characteristics of the Eagles and Vultures are combined in an intense degree, so that the species 

 referred to has been bandied by naturalists back and forth between the Eagles and Vultures 

 till its true position became a matter of general doubt. At last it has been established among 

 the Vultures, under the generic title of GYPAETOS : GyjKietos, signifying Vulttire-Eayle ; its 

 specific name is Lammerrieycr or Lamb-killer among the Swiss ; the Bearded- Vulture of Eng- 

 lish authors; the Weissk'dpfige Oeier Adler of the Germans — O. harbatus. This is the largest of 

 European birds, being four to four and a half feet long; the spread of its wings about nine feet, 

 sometimes much more. The French expedition to Egypt killed one which measured fourteen 

 feet. It is in fact but little smaller than the condor, and is regarded as having given rise to the 

 fabulous Roc of the Arabian tales. The head and upper part of the neck are a dirty white ; 

 back and wing-coverts deep gray-brown ; lower parts orange-red. The plumage varies greatly 

 with the age. It builds its nest on inaccessible rocks, and lays two whitish eggs, spotted with 

 brown. 



Unlike the typical vultures, which are distinguished by their bare necks, indicative of their 

 propensity for feeding on carrion, the lammergeyer has the neck thickly covered with feathers, 

 resembling those of the true eagles, with which it also accords in its bold and predatory habits, 

 pouncing with impetuosity on animals exceeding itself in size; hence the young chamois, the 

 wild goat, the mountain hare, and various species of birds, find in it a formidable and ferocious 

 enemy. Having seized its prey, the lammergeyer devours it upon the spot, the straight form of 

 its talons disabling it from carrying it to a distance. It refuses flesh in a state of putrefac- 

 tion, unless sharply pressed by hunger. It inhabits the highest mountains of Europe, Asia, and 

 Africa, the chain of the Pyrenees, and the Swiss Alps, Sardinia, Greece, and the Tyrol, the 

 chain of the Caucasus, the Himalaya Mountains, the Siberian and Persian Mountains. It is also 

 found in the lofty mountains of Central Africa, and toward the borders of the Red Sea, princi- 

 pally in the most inaccessible parts of those mountains, and where there is plenty of the larger 

 sort of game. It is especially dreaded in Switzerland, where it is said sometimes to carry off chil- 

 dren ; but this is not proved. It is asserted with more probability that it sometimes descends 

 upon lambs, calves, goats, and chamois, which it finds on the precipices, and striking them with 

 its breast, dashes them down the rocks, where it afterward devours them. 



Genus VULTURE : Valtur. — Of these disgusting but useful and necessary birds, there are 

 several genera and many species. The general characteristics are — eyes flush with the head, and 

 not buried under the brow as in the eagles; the tarsi are not covered by protecting plates, but 

 reticulated, covered with small scales let into a sort of network, as they generally are in the wad- 

 ing birds; the beak is long, nearly straight in the greater part of the length of its cutting edges, 

 and hooked only in a portion toward the tip ; a greater or smaller portion of the head, and even 

 of the neck, is bare of feathers, and if not absolutely naked skin, covered only with thin, short, 

 and soft down. The power of their talons is by no means in proportion to the size of the birds, 

 and they are not much used as weapons ; the bill is the member upon which they chiefly depend, 

 and it has more the character of a cutting than of a killing instrument ; their wings are so very 

 long that they are obliged to carry them partially expanded when they walk; they are cowardly 

 birds, and feed chiefly upon carrion, and rarely upon living prey ; they often, however, have ter- 

 rific battles with each other over the carcasses on which they feed, two of them struggling, scream- 

 ing, and fighting for the same mass of putrid flesh. After they have gorged themselves with 

 food, their craw forms a large protuberance beneath the furcal bone, a flow of fetid humor distils 

 from the nostrils, and they are often in such a state of stupidity and inaction that they are incap- 

 able of escape or defense, and one may catch them or knock them down with a stick. Their 

 ofllice in nature is a foul one, and when they have performed it they are foul and offensive birds, 

 but not upon that account the less in character. They are the scavengers of hot climates, and 

 are designed to remove the dead animal matter, wdiich would otherwise breed infection and scat- 

 ter pestilence over the land. Hence these birds are protected in many of the cities of tropical 

 countries. They have amazing keenness of sight, by which they are able to discern a dead ani- 

 mal while flying over it a thousand or two thousand feet in the air. It is probable that they are 

 a.ssisted by their sense of smell in finding their food, but the sight is their chief dependence. 



