ACCIPITRES. 229 
GyYPAETOS, Storr.—PHENE, Savigny. 
The Griffins, placed by Gmelin in the genus Falco, are more nearly 
allied to the Vultures in their habits and conformation ; their eyes 
are even with the head ; their talons proportionably weak ; wings 
half extended when at rest; the crop, when full, projecting at the 
bottom of the neck; but their head is completely covered with 
feathers. Their distinguishing characters consist in a very strong, 
straight beak, hooked at the end, and inflated on the curve; nostrils 
covered by stiff hairs, directed forwards, and a pencil of similar 
ones under the beak; their tarsi short and feathered to the toes ; 
their wings long, the third quill being the longest. 
Vult. barbarus and Falco barbatus, Gm. Pl. Col. 4313 Edw. 
106; Vieillot, Gal. pl. 8; Nauman, pl. 4 and 53 Visser. of 
Bruce, Abyss. pl. 31. (Zhe Lemmer-geyer.) The largest 
bird of prey belonging to the eastern continent, inhabiting 
the high chains of mountains, but not very common. | It 
builds its nest on inaccessible acclivities, attacks lambs, goats, 
the chamois, and, as it is said,even man, when it finds him 
asleep $ it is asserted that children have been carried away by 
it. Its usual mode of attack is to force its prey from some pre- 
cipice, which it then devours, being killed and mangled by the 
fall. It does not, however, reject dead bodies. Its length is 
nearly four feet, the distance from the tip of one wing to that of 
the other being from nineto ten. The mantle is blackish, with 
a white line on the middle of each feather ; the neck, and all 
the under part of the body are of alight and brilliant fawn-co- 
lour; a black band surrounds the head. The neck and breast 
of the young, until the fourth year inclusive, are of a brown 
colour, more or less deep. This bird is the Phene of the Greeks, 
and the Ossifraga of the Latins.(1) 
, Fatco,. Lin. 
The Falcons form the second, and by far most numerous division 
of the diurnal birds of prey. Their head and neck are covered with 
feathers ; their eye-brows project, which occasions the eye to appear 
sunk, and gives to their physiognomy a character very different 
from that of the Vultures: the greater number prey on living ani- 
mals, but they differ in the courage with which they pursue it. Their 
first plumage is often very differently coloured from that of the adult, 
. 
(1) Savigny, Ois. d’Egyp. et de Syrie, p. 18, in the great work on Egypt, was 
the first who firmly established this synonyme. 
