405 



5 



synonym of G. barbatus. Kiister (loc. cit.) gives the measurements as follows — total length 

 3 feet 10 inches, culmen 3 inches, tail 18f inches; Schlegel and Susemihl, as total length 

 43 inches, wing 30, tail 18 inches; and Count Salvadori, who refers to the Sardinian bird as 

 G. occidentalis (Cab. Journ. 1865, p. 58), also gives the measurements, as follows — total length 

 about 4 (?) metres, wing 30 - 7 to 32 - 3 inches, tail 22'9 to 23 - 6, tarsus 3 - 2 to 3 - 4, middle toe 

 without claw 3 - 6, gape 4-0 inches. These measurements were given in French centimetres; but 

 in order to enable our readers to compare them with the others, we have reduced them to 

 English inches. We may remark that none of the authors above referred to states whether the 

 measurements were taken from males or females, which makes the matter still more obscure 

 than it otherwise would be. 



Lord Lilford, referring to the Sardinian bird, writes as follows : — " From my further 

 acquaintance with this bird in Spain and Sardinia, I am more than ever convinced that there is 

 a hitherto (as far as I know) undescribed race or species of this genus to be met with in Epirus 

 (vid. Ibis, O. S. vol. ii. p. 3). The first two birds there mentioned were, roughly speaking, not 

 half the size of an ordinary Spanish Lammergeyer." Lindermayer writes that " it is to be found 

 on all the mountains of the Peloponnesus and Northern Greece, as also on the large island of 

 Eubcea, but does not seem to occur on the other islands, as Dr. Erhard does not refer to it. 

 Count von der Muhle found it on the Taygetus, in the Southern Peloponnesus, at Corinth, and 

 in Northern Greece at Lamia. I found it common in Attica and on Eubcea. It is resident, and 

 builds its nest in January, when the mountain-tops where it breeds are still covered with snow." 

 Mr. W. H. Hudleston, in his notes on the ornithology of Greece, writes that " the Lammergeyer 

 (Gypaetus barbatus) is not numerous. Only one pair was actually recognized, though a single 

 adult bird was occasionally observed in the Grand Gorge, where, amongst the holes in an upper 

 tier of cliffs, he may have had an eyry. This is decidedly a scarce bird throughout Western 

 Greece: in all the Raptorial districts I have visited, its proportion to V.fulvus is very small 

 indeed ; yet wherever there is any large colony of the latter a pair of G. barbatus may be looked 

 for, and generally in the deepest hole on the shady side of the most inaccessible rock." Messrs. 

 Elwes and Buckley write that they " only observed this bird in the mountains of Macedonia, 

 where it seemed not to be uncommon; but as the females were probably sitting at this time, 

 they were not seen very often. We never discovered the whereabouts of their eyries ; but the 

 shepherds say that they are very destructive to the young lambs and kids. In the Museum at 

 Athens there are some very fine specimens obtained on Mount Parnassus." 



Naumann says that in Germany " it is one of the rarest birds, and only occurs on the highest 

 mountains in Suabia and Salzburg, as on the Benediktbaiern, Hohenschwangau Ettal, and in the 

 Joch pass in the Tyrol;" and with regard to its occurrence in Austria and the Austrian Tyrol, 

 we have received a most careful account from the Bitter von Tschusi Schmidthofen, which we 

 translate as follows : — " In former years the Bearded Vulture was by no means rare in our Alpine 

 regions, but now it has become almost extinct ; and with its extinction its name has been trans- 

 ferred to the Golden Eagle, which in the mountains is usually called Lammergeier. In 1810 a 

 male and a female were killed near Innsbruck; according to Bruhin it is by no means rare (?) in 

 the Vorarlberg, and is said on the Iffer, on the borders of the Bavarian Algau, to commit con- 

 siderable depredations amongst the flocks which pasture there during the summer. I will not 



