408 



8 



rocks, their nest being in a hole on the north-west side. At Kef Laks, in the precipices called 

 by the Arabs ' Gala el Hainara,' was another eyry. None of the stories of the Lammergeyer 

 defending its young against one so hardy as to assail its nest were ever realized during our stay 

 in their localities ; and though their eyries were repeatedly scaled and their young taken, the old 

 birds not only never offered an attack, but in all cases either kept at a respectful distance, or 

 never showed themselves at all. Immature birds of this species seldom occur in the breeding- 

 haunts of the old ones ; I only saw one during my whole stay. This remark probably applies to 

 all the birds of prey ; and its truth is especially illustrated in the case of the Egyptian Vulture 

 (Neophron percnopterus), immature birds of which I hardly ever saw. It would appear that this 

 bird, like the Gyps fulvus, seldom, if ever, lays more than one egg; no instance of more than one 

 young ever occurred in the nests visited. The food of the Lammergeyer consists principally of 

 the Land-Tortoises (Testudo mauritanica), which abound throughout the country. These it 

 carries to some height in the air, and lets fall on a stone to break the shell. It is an early 

 breeder. The eggs must be laid in January, or at the beginning of February at the latest, as in 

 the early part of April the young, in every case that came under our observation, had been 

 hatched at least a month. I cannot concur in the supposition, suggested by the reviewer of 

 Mr. Bree's ' Birds of Europe,' in the last number of ' The Ibis,' ' that the rich tawny hue of the 

 under surface in some individuals of the Lammergeyer is probably owing to a stain, the effect of 

 bathing in muddy water, or of rolling in the sand with wet plumage.' That such a cause should 

 produce such an effect is not very obvious ; and even if it were so, one can hardly, by such an 

 hypothesis, account for the colours being distributed only on the under surface and lighter 

 portions of the plumage ; one would expect that the rolling process would extend some of its 

 influence to the darker portions also. All the mature birds I saw wore a deep shade of this 

 rich colouring." 



To the eastward the Bearded Vulture is found through Cashmere and the Himalayas to 

 China. Mr. W. T. Blanford, who has just returned from Persia, informs us that he " met with 

 it in Sikkim only amongst the higher mountains ; in Persia it is generally distributed throughout 

 all the hilly parts of the country, but was not observed below about 4000 feet above the sea- 

 level." It was met with in Siberia by the Russian travellers. Middendorff did not succeed in 

 obtaining a specimen of this Vulture, but states that the Tungusians speak of a large raptor as 

 nesting east of the Pasino Lakes, which, from their description, he considers to be G. barbatus. 

 Middendorff also speaks of the Gypaete found in the Altai Mountains as identical in colour, 

 plumage, and size with Gyp. barbatus from the Alps, but as having the tarsus feathered to the 

 root of the toes. Those from the Caucasus are less feathered on the tarsus than the bird from 

 the Altai, but more than the Alpine bird. 



Badde states that the Bearded Vulture is becoming fast extinct. In the mountain country 

 visited by him it is only found on Russian territory in the Central Oka. In Dauria and 

 Mandshuria, though it is known by name to the hunters, it is extinct. It is still found in 

 Kentei, and in the portion of the Red Mountains bordering the right shore of the Kyrkun, 

 called Zongolok. In 1830 it was observed in Dauria, in the Adontscholon Mountains, where 

 Pallas also observed it in 1772. As the Argali sheep have gradually receded in a south-easterly 

 direction, so has G. barbatus also disappeared from these parts of the country. Old hunters 



