THE VULTURES 305 



once so numerous throughout Europe, but which now 

 have to be sought for in the wildest and most out-of-the- 

 way mountain retreats. 



The late Crown Prince of Austria, who went after 

 every rare bird he could hear of, on the Continent, thought 

 himself very lucky to bag a pair of Lammergeiers in the 

 Sierra Nevada. He and his assistants found out where 

 the nest was placed — a large round hole in the face of a 

 precipitous wall of rock. Then he sat down, covered with 

 a screen of cut twigs and boughs. Presently the bird 

 appeared. 



"I could not see it from my hiding-place," he writes, 

 "but the hunter whispered to me that it was flying up 

 along the slope of the hill close below us. I only heard its 

 cry, a deep grunting sound. ... I soon observed the young 

 bird raise itself on the edge of the nest and petulantly 

 shake its wings. It was already a fine big fellow, with its 

 body feathered, but its head still covered with down. Ten 

 minutes had hardly passed when we saw a great shadow 

 glide over the ground. ... It swept twice past our ambush 

 and then flew to the nest. 



" The way in which the Bearded Vulture returns to its 

 nest is quite different from that of most Vultures; it is 

 much more like that of the Eagles. For with stiffly ex- 

 tended wings, outstretched feet, head held high, and tail 

 carried straight out, it shoots in like an arrow." 



The bird sat for a time feeding its young one, with its 

 tail projecting from the cliff' wall. The hunters shouted to 

 make it fly out, but at first it paid no heed. " It was only 

 after repeated shouts that the long tail vanished into the 

 hole, and in its place there appeared the goat-like head, 

 with its bristly beard and gleaming eyes, and the yellow 

 breast of the Bearded Vulture — the strangest, rarest, 



