BEARDED VULTURE. 15 
always irritated at the sight of children. I once left 
the lid of its cage in my garden open. Watching 
the moment when no one saw it, it threw itself on 
one of my nieces, two years and a half old. Having 
seized her by the shoulders, it threw her down on the 
ground. Fortunately her cries warned me of the 
danger she was in, and I hastened to her assistance. 
The child only suffered from fear and a torn frock. 
This same bird shows very little courage towards the 
other birds of prey which reside with it.” 
We copy the following excellent description of the 
habits of this bird from ‘‘Tschudi’s Sketches of Nature 
in the high Alps:”’—Soon the pilgrim fancies himself 
really alone with his labours; with the grey rocks and 
cold fields of ice, where death has established its eter- 
nal sway. Beneath him spread the stony deserts; in 
the distance lie the lands of human cultivation bathed 
in blue mist; around are the wastes of Schratten, and 
jagged peaks, the naked thrones of the icy storm. But 
hark! far overhead resounds from a distance a shrill 
defiant ‘pui! pui!’ He looks around him and discerns 
a moving speck in the dim blue sky. It floats nearer, 
but its wings scarcely beat. Soon it comes down with 
a rustling sound, and see! the Royal Vulture of the 
high Alps is wheeling round him with outspread pin- 
ions. Descending still lower it surveys the depths 
below; and then rising again impatiently to the upper 
air, flies in a straight line high over the icy summits, 
which again hide it from view; while its hungry cry 
resounds for some minutes from beyond the crests of 
far-away mountains, till again it soars to meet the 
rising sun. 
In earlier times this giant among European birds of 
prey inhabited all the districts of our higher Alps; 
