248 Rev. H. B. Tristram on the Ornithology of Palestine. 



with a stone was flung down, by the aid of which Giacorao, who 

 had already climbed half way up, scaled the cliffs and entered 

 the upper caves, while the less adventurous of ourselves were 

 content to explore the lower tiers of ruins — also tenanted by 

 Griffons, Lanners, Kestrels, and Bubo ascalaphus. To some of 

 the nests the explorers were let down by ropes from above, but 

 wherever the clifl" was interrupted by an accessible ledge, we found 

 a rope swinging from above to be the most available auxiliary. 

 Great was the amazement of the Bedouin shepherds at our pro- 

 ceedings. Heretofore we had been put down as hakeems and 

 dervishes, wise men who knew all things and could cure every- 

 thing. Henceforward there was a solemn nod of the head, and 

 the Franghi were mere fools, — harmless, and therefore to be 

 respected as all of weak intellect are in the East ; but hopeless 

 fools, who, in our desire to introduce the ' Niss'r ' into western 

 lands, could not wait till the young were hatched, but must needs 

 seize the eggs, and — acme of our folly ! — thought to produce 

 young from the eggs which we had voided of their contents ! 

 The familiar spirits of the dervishes might do much, but this 

 was beyond their power ! 



The Griffbns were in the habit of soaring high, and sweeping 

 the horizon about daybreak ; then in about two hours they would 

 retui'n, and either betake themselves to the work of incubation, or 

 perch motionless in long rows on the most conspicuous ledges and 

 points of the precipices until the evening. They would then take a 

 little airy exercise before retiring to rest. Like all other carrion- 

 feeders, the Griffon must have the power of enduring prolonged 

 abstinence ; for it was utterly impossible that the neighbour- 

 hood of Gennesaret could have afforded sustenance to the flocks, 

 amounting to five hundred birds, on the lowest computation, 

 which inhabited the valleys close to it ; and yet, so far as we could 

 observe, for many days the sitting birds and their mates never 

 left the wadys for more than an hour or two. Each had its 

 own perch, its reserved seat, and daily we noted Vultures in 

 exactly the same spots and in exactly the same numbers as we 

 had seen them before. Nor were the Griffons first in the field 

 for what little carrion our immediate neighbourhood afforded. 

 The wolves and jackals always came in for the liou''s share of a 



