192 CLASS AVES. 



to the brute creation, but sometimes succeeds in carrying off 

 children. This relation, perhaps, is no better verified by facts 

 than similar stories of the condor : we certainly, however, have 

 no reason to doubt the capacity of the bird to perform such a 

 feat, nor do we suppose that so much " divinity hedges" the 

 young princes of the creation as to deter him from the attempt. 

 Fortis has beheld the Isemmer-geyer on the precipitous rocks 

 which border on the Cittina in Dalmatia, and Pallas on the 

 granite ridges of Odon-tschelon in Siberia, where it constructs 

 its nest. It arrives there in the month of April, and passes the 

 summer there. It is also found in Mongolia, where it receives 

 the appellation of icello. 



It is probable that the fabulous stories of the roc, so cele- 

 brated in the tales of Oriental enchantment, originated in some 

 eastern variety of this gypaetos ; that they cannot be referred 

 to the condor has been sufficiently proved. 



The Gypaetos of Africa, described by Bruce, is considered 

 by some ornithologists as a distinct species, and by others as 

 but a variety of the Lsemmer-geyer. It was seen by that cele- 

 brated traveller on the highest part of the mountain of Lamal- 

 raon, near Gondar. The natives call it Ahou-Duch'n^ or 

 Father Long-beard, from the tuft of divided hair which hangs 

 beneath its beak. Mr. Bruce imagined it to be one of the 

 largest birds in existence : it measured eight feet four inches 

 from wing to wing ; from the tip of the tail to the point of the 

 beak four feet seven. Its weight was two-and-twenty pounds. 

 The legs were short, and the thighs extremely muscular : the 

 aperture of the eye was scarcely half an inch across : the crown 

 of the head, and the forehead where the juncture exists be- 

 tween the beak and the skull, were bald. We extract Mr. 

 Brace's account: — 



" This noble bird was not an object of any chase or pursuit, 

 nor stood in need of any stratagem to bring him within our 

 reach. Upon the highest top of the mountain Lamalmon, 

 while my servants were refreshing themselves from that toil- 



