FALCONIDJS. 163 



as she passed close by me I could see every feather and the hairs in 

 her beard. In a few seconds she reappeared, and as long as we 

 remained continued sailing overhead watching our movements. 

 Francisco now found his way into the nest from above, and called 

 out that there were two eggs ; these he lowered to me in a bag, 

 and they proved perfectly fresh and of a uniform dull yellow-ochre 

 colour, the colouring looking as if it had been carelessly laid on 

 with a brush. This season 1884 was, on the sierra, very mild, the 

 snow-line fully 1000 feet higher up than in 1876, a severe spring, 

 when the Bearded Vultures were about to hatch their eggs on the 

 4th of February, so that the weather apparently does not influence 

 their time of laying. These nests were at an estimated altitude 

 of 4500 feet. 



" In the low r er ranges of the Sierra de Honda, towards Gibraltar 

 and Tarifa, the Bearded Vulture is not very common ; the 

 Griffon being, on the contrary, abundant in that district. The 

 majority of the Bearded Vultures seen here have been birds in 

 dark plumage, not fully adult. 



" I have never seen the Bearded Vulture attempt to catch any 

 living creature. Juan, the cazador, told me that they sometimes 

 took rabbits and partridges ; but the goatherds, whom I questioned 

 on the subject, asserted that they only feed on carrion and dung, 

 and I have watched them walking about among the female goats, 

 apparently picking up the placenta? and droppings of goats, but 

 never molesting either the mother or the kids. 



" In food, nest, and nesting-place the Lammergeyer is simply a 

 big Neophron." 



Description. See Plate (frontispiece). 



FALCONIDJE. 



179. Circus seruginosus (Linnaeus). The Marsh-Harrier. 

 Moorish. Hedia (Favier). Spanish. Aguilucho, Eapina. 

 "The most common of the Harriers in Morocco, this bird is 



