132 THE HUMAN SIDE OF BIRDS 



into the carcass of a dead animal without unduly 

 soiling their feathers. Those who have seen a vul- 

 ture banquet will have no difficulty in "accounting 

 for the origin of those angry creations of the gods 

 that defiled the banquets of King Phineus." Yet 

 when seen at a long distance, far away beyond the 

 clouds, soaring like a self-sure kite, all ugliness dis- 

 appears. Surely in this case distance lends en- 

 chantment ! 



The lammergeyer or bearded vulture is the lion 

 among vultures. Some ornithologists class him 

 with the eagles. He is one of the aviation corps of 

 the high mountainous regions, and many are the 

 strange and wonderful tales told of his swooping 

 down and carrying off little children, sheep, goats, 

 deer, and other small animals. It is a fact that he 

 is powerfully strong, and that his food consists 

 partially of bones, which he breaks by allowing 

 them to fall from a great height to the rocks below. 

 This act gives him the name of "bone-smasher." 



This notorious creature, so it is claimed, wiU oc- 

 casionally attack a living animal, when it is able 

 to throw it over a precipice. Sometimes these 

 ghouls will even attack a dying man, and kill and 

 devour him, when he is in an out-of-the-way place. 

 But the chief food of these mountainous scavengers 

 consists of bones and the flesh of dead animals. Like 



