404 



4 



history of this species in Switzerland has been written by Dr. A. Girtanner (Verh. St. Gall, 

 naturwiss. Gesellschaft, 1869, 1870) ; and from that we extract the following particulars. From 

 the earliest times the northern spurs of the Swiss Alps have probably been the most northern 

 home of the Bearded Vulture. The cantons of Thurgau, Schaffhausen, Zurich, Aargau. Solo- 

 thurn, and Basel being further distant from those ranges, and containing less highlands than the 

 true Alpine territory, have probably never been regularly inhabited by this species, nor does it 

 appear to have inhabited the heights of the Jura or the Jorat. In many cantons it was formerly 

 a resident, but is now no more so. It there inhabited the wildest Alpine regions, and was found 

 in the Tessiner-, Walliser-, and Berner-Alps, especially, however, the vast regions of the Biindner 

 Alps. It is certain that it has not been found as a resident in Appenzell or the Santisstock in 

 the present century ; and since the specimen in Dr. Schlapfer's collection in Trogen was attacked 

 by moth and thrown away there is no example in this canton. It long inhabited the canton of 

 St. Gallen, especially the Kurfirsten range, where are several breeding-places of which it obsti- 

 nately held possession; but these localities now know it no more, the last one having long disap- 

 peared. In 1825, however, a reward was paid for one killed by a hunter from Sax. Nor does 

 it now inhabit the canton of Glarus ; and for long none have been obtained in the canton of 

 Schwyz. 



Of all the cantons there remain but three where this magnificent Vulture still occurs. 

 These are (besides Wallis) those which contain the most inaccessible mountains, Bern, Tessin, 

 and Graubiinden, but only in the last is it now known to breed. It was observed in Bern and 

 Tessin in 1870 during the breeding-season; and as it rarely wanders far from its breeding-place, 

 it probably bred there. 



According to information obtained from Saratz, there are but two nesting-places in Ober- 

 engadin, one in the Camogasker Valley, in an inaccessible precipice ; and here the bird has bred 

 but three times during the last fifteen years. The second nest is also in a steep precipice. 

 Another nest, occasionally occupied, is in the rocks at Guardaval ; Manni refers to two other 

 nesting-places; and Saratz thinks there is another in the valleys of Calanca and Misox. Dr. 

 Girtanner gives a table showing all the specimens now in the various museums in Switzerland, 

 forty-eight in number, of which two are in the canton of St. Gallen, one in Thurgau, eleven 

 in Zurich, three in Aargau, two in Basel, six in Bern, two in Lucerne, one in Wallis, eight in 

 Neuenburg, two in Waadt, four in Geneva, four in Tessin, and two in Graubiinden. Salvadori 

 says that this species is becoming rare in the Italian Alps ; but in Sardinia it continues to be 

 tolerably common. According to Doderlein it is a resident in the mountainous districts of the 

 interior of Sicily, especially about Nebrodi ; and the Palermo Museum contains several specimens. 



The Sardinian bird has been described as a distinct species, differing in being less in size, 

 and much brighter in colour. These differences were first pointed out by Kiister (Isis, 1835, 

 p. 209), who stated that the Sardinian as also the Pyrenean Bearded Vultures differ from the 

 Alpine species ; and the same remarks were made by Schlegel and Susemihl, who figured the 

 Sardinian bird. Professor Schlegel, who described the Sardinian bird under the name of Gypaetus 

 occidentalis as a distinct species in 1844, appears to have abandoned the idea that there are two 

 species of Bearded Vultures in Europe, as in 1862 (Mus. Pays-Bas, Vult. p. 10) he refers only to 

 Gypaetus barbatus ; and we are likewise of opinion that Gypaetus occidentalis must sink into a 



