THE GRIFFON VULTURE. 103 



This noble species of Vulture, which is one of the 

 largest birds of prey of the Old Continent, measuring 

 from three feet and a half to four feet in length, and 

 more than twice as much in the expanse of its wings, 

 is found on the lofty mountain chains of Europe, Asia, 

 and Africa. It is not uncommon during the summer in 

 the Alps and Pyrenees, but is said to retreat in winter 

 to the North of Africa, extending itself, according to 

 Le Vaillant, to the Cape of Good Hope. M. Risso, 

 however, informs us that it is stationary on the Alps in 

 the vicinity of Nice. The Rock of Gibraltar, the Moun- 

 tains of Silesia and the Tyrol, Greece, and Turkey, are 

 also spoken of as its European habitats ; Egypt is 

 indicated by Savigny ; the Mountains of Ghilan in the 

 North of Persia by Hablizl ; and other localities still 

 farther East are given by other writers. 



The nest of the Griffon Vulture is formed in the 

 clefts of rocks. It lays from two to four eggs, which 

 are of a grayish white, with numerous spots of a very 

 light and diluted red. Like all the other birds of its 

 tribe it feeds principally upon dead carcasses, to which 

 it is frequently attracted in very considerable numbers. 

 When it has once made a lodgment upon its prey, it 

 rarely quits the banquet while a morsel of flesh remains, 

 so that it is not uncommon to see it perched upon a 

 putrefying corpse for several successive days. It never 

 attempts to carry off a portion, even to satisfy its young, 

 but feeds them by disgorging the half-digested morsel 

 from its maw. Sometimes, but very rarely, it makes its 

 prey of living victims ; and even then of such only as 

 are incapable of offering the smallest resistance; for 

 in a contest for superiority it has not that advantage 

 which is possessed by the Falcon tribes, of lacerating 

 its enemy with its talons, and must therefore rely upon 

 the force of its beak alone. It is only, however, when 



