410 



10 



* 



the child was found was about 1400 paces distant from the barn where it had been left 

 asleep. The child was afterwards called Lammergeier-Anni, and married Peter Frutiger, a tailor 

 in Gewaldswyl, where she was still living in 1814." 



Mr. W. H. Hudlestone, writing on the habits of this bird in Greece, says that " it is not a 

 demonstrative bird, like the Griffon, who may be seen sailing about at a great height in the air, 

 sometimes alone, but more often in troops of from half a dozen to fifty, revolving in endless 

 circles round each other, that no corner may remain unseen. The Lammergeyer, on the 

 contrary, may be observed floating slowly at a uniform level, close to the cliffs of some deep 

 ravine, where his shadow is perhaps projected on the wall-like rocks. If the ravine has salient 

 and reentering angles, he does not cut across from point to point, but preserves the same 

 distance from the cliff; and when he disappears at any lateral fissure, you feel sure of the very 

 spot where he will emerge on turning the corner of the precipice. Marrow-bones are the 

 dainties he loves the best ; and when the other Vultures have picked the flesh off any animal, 

 he comes in at the end of the feast and swallows the bones, or breaks them and swallows the 

 pieces, if he cannot get the marrow out otherwise. The bones he cracks by taking them to a 

 great height, and letting them fall upon a stone. This is probably the bird that dropped a 

 Tortoise on the bald head of poor old iEschylus. Not, however, that he restricts himself, or the 

 huge black infant that he and his mate are bringing up in one of the many holes with which the 

 limestone precipice abounds, to marrow, Turtle, bones, and similar delicacies : neither Lamb, 

 Hare, nor Kid come amiss to him, though, his power of claw and beak being feeble for so large 

 a bird, he cannot tear his meat like other Vultures and Eagles. To make amends for this, his 

 powers of deglutition are enormous. The Greeks believe he will swallow and digest any thing ; 

 but the stories I have heard on this point are too marvellous to be mentioned in ' The Ibis.' 

 One man averred that an old axe-head had been found in this bird. If so, the meeting of the 

 marrow-bones and cleaver must have been affecting in the extreme. The character of the Greeks 

 for mendacity is well-known ; any naturalist travelling in this country will find their information 

 as unreliable as their assistance is unwilling. I once saw a mature bird of this species which had 

 evidently swallowed a bone, or something uncommonly indigestible, close to the abattoir at Athens. 

 He was in a very uncomfortable attitude, and appeared to be leaning on his long tail for support. 

 After riding round in continually decreasing circles till within ten yards, I dropped off horse- 

 back and made a rush at him, but he just managed to escape, and then rising slowly till about 

 the height of the Acropolis, made off towards the Gorge of Phyle, where there is an eyry. The 

 Lammergeyer has an extremely ugly countenance ; this becomes perfectly diabolical when he is 

 irritated and shows the bright red round his eyes. Altogether, what with his black beard, 

 rufous breast, and long dark tail, he is an awful-looking beast, and has the reputation of 

 committing divers evil deeds, — such, for instance, as pushing Lambs and Kids, and even men, 

 off the rocks, when they are in ticklish situations. Nevertheless he is a somewhat cowardly 

 bird, has a feeble querulous cry, and will submit to insults from a Falcon not a fourth its size or 

 weight. 



" The only inhabited nest of this species we discovered was situated in the face of the upper 

 tier of precipices which form the reentering angle of the Great Klissoura, looking due north, 

 and facing the northern arm of that extraordinary fissure, of which I ought to attempt a short 



