314 WILD SPAIN. 



Wolves, by the way, during the severe winter of 1890-1, 

 were particularly numerous and destructive in the Sierra 

 Nevada, descending to lower levels than usual, demolishing 

 whole flocks, and even attacking human beings when found 

 alone. In one instance all that could be found of a poor goat- 

 herd, who had been missing for some weeks, was his boots ! 



This brings us again to the question of the habits of the. 

 Gypaetus, and especially of its food. Some naturalists 

 seem inclined to hold that the bird is only a vulture, subsist- 

 ing on carrion, and fearing to attack any living prey. The 

 goatherds of Nevada, however (rightly or wrongly), do not 

 share this view. One kindly old hill-farmer, at whose lonely 

 cottage we spent a couple of nights, assured us that the 

 " quebrantones," as he called them, were as destructive to his 

 new-born kids in spring-time as the wolves themselves, and 

 added that he laid out the rencno in special spots for each of 

 his enemies. Only three days before, he asserted with vehe- 

 ment emphasis, he had witnessed a Lammergeyer strike 

 down a week-old kid, its mate meanwhile driving off the 

 dam. So intent was the bird on demolishing its victim 

 that the farmer approached within a few yards and 

 threw his stick at it as it rose. The kid, however, was 

 dead. He insisted that the robber was no Golden Eagle 

 (which he knew well), but " de los Barlmdos malditos!" 

 — one of those accursed bearded fellows ! 



Again, on a single majada, or goat-breeding establishment, 

 in Estremadura, we were told that forty odd kids had been 

 killed that spring by one pair of Lammergeyers before the 

 enraged tenant was able to shoot them. We saw one of the 

 birds — a superb adult Gypaetus. 



Here also is the evidence of the veteran eamdor, Manuel 

 de la Torre, a man of keen observation and intelligence, 

 and the best field-naturalist we have met in Spain: 

 " The Lammergeyer seeks far and wide for prey, pre- 

 ferring bones to anything else, but also eating carrion 

 on necessity ; and in spring, when it has young, kills many 

 young sheep and goats, both wild and tame. I have seen 

 it take snakes and other reptiles, and the largest and 

 finest I ever shot (now in Madrid Museum) was in the act 



