416 MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 
towns or the sporting trophies in country-houses are examined, 
one very frequently finds in the western provinces of the 
kingdom stuffed specimens of the Griffon, but very seldom 
of the Cinereous Vulture. What is the reason of this ? 
From what I have seen and heard, I believe that I have 
good grounds for maintaining that the Griffon Vulture is now, 
as already said, engaged in a vast migration, and is occupied 
in extending the area of its distribution. 
Certain species of animals change their habitats in the 
course of time, but their reasons for so doing are as yet 
unknown to us, and the investigation of these causes offers 
splendid employment to students of the animal world. 
According to my ideas, this vulture is drawing nearer 
and nearer to the Alps. It has already taken up its abode in 
the Karawanken to the south of Klangenfurt, and from there 
it will spread further towards the north and west. In the 
eastern and central Alps it is, as it were, replacing the Bearded 
Vulture, which has now, alas! almost entirely disappeared. 
I may also mention, as an interesting fact, that the Egyptian 
Vulture (Meophron percnopterus) regularly breeds in Switzer- 
land, and that one or two of its nests are situated on a 
mountain close to Geneva. In the museum of that town I 
saw specimens that were killed in that locality, and one of 
the Curators informed me that this bird still breeds there 
every year and invariably on the same mountain. 
