334 RECREATIONS OF A NATURALIST 



while in expanse of wing it measures no more than 

 an adult Griffon Vulture (8 feet 3 in. to 9 feet 2 in.), 

 its weight may be several pounds less. 



Captain Hutton, writing of the Lammergeier as 

 observed by him in the Himalayas, remarks : — 



" Marvellous indeed are the stories told both by 

 natives and Europeans of the destructive habits of 

 this bird, and both accounts I fully believe have 

 scarcely a grain of truth in them. All I can 

 positively say upon the point, however, is that I 

 have known the bird well in its native haunts for 

 thirty years and more, and never once in all that 

 time have I seen it stoop to anything but a dead 

 carcase. As to carrying off hens, dogs, lambs, or 

 children, I say the feat would be utterly impossible, 

 for the creature does not possess the strongly- 

 curved, sharp-pointed claws of the eagle, but the 

 far straighter and perfectly blunt talons of the 

 vulture." 



Mr R. Thomson also, after close and constant 

 observation of the habits of the Lammergeier for 

 twelve years, writes : — 



" I have never seen them attack or come down 

 to a living animal. They have repeatedly sailed 

 past close to my nets when I have had live fowls 

 and pigeons picketed as lures for hawks and eagles. 

 They have passed within a few feet of these with- 

 out once showing a desire to pick up any of the 

 birds ; and this, too, on the tops of high mountains 

 in a perfectly wild country, with no human habita- 

 tion within miles. On the other hand, they will at 

 once come down on a well-cleaned carcase, a heap 



