CLASS 11. AVES: ORDER 1. RAPTORES. 
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characteristics of the Eagles and Vultures are combined in an intense degree, so that the species 
referred to has been bandied by naturalists back and forth between the Eagles and Vultures 
till its true position became a matter of general doubt. At last it has been established among 
the Vultures, under the generic title of GYPAETOS : Gypaetos, signifying Vulture-Eagle ; its 
specific name is Lammergeyer or Lamh-killer among the Swiss ; the Bearded- Vulture of Eng- 
lish authors ; the Weisskop/ige Geier Adder of the Germans — G. harhatus. This is the largest of 
European birds, being four to four and a half feet long; the spread of its wings about nine feet, 
sometimes much more. The French expedition to Egypt killed one which measured fourteen 
feet. It is in fact but little smaller than the condor, and is regarded as having given rise to the 
fabulous Boc of the Arabian tales. The head and upper part of the neck are a dirty white ; 
back and wing-coverts deep gray-brown ; lower parts orange-red. The plumage varies greatly 
with the age. It builds its nest on inaccessible rocks, and lays two whitish eggs, spotted with 
brown. 
Unlike the typical vultures, which are distinguished by their bare necks, indicative of their 
propensity for feeding on carrion, the lammergeyer has the neck thickly covered with feathers, 
resembling those of the true eagles, with which it also accords in its bold and predatory habits, 
pouncing with impetuosity on animals exceeding itself in size ; hence the young chamois, the 
wild goat, the mountain hare, and various species of birds, find in it a formidable and ferocious 
enemy. Having seized its prey, the lammergeyer devours it upon the spot, the straight form of 
its talons disabling it from carrying it to a distance. It refuses flesh in a state of putrefac- 
tion, unless sharply pressed by hunger. It inhabits the highest mountains of Europe, Asia, and 
Africa, the chain of the Pyrenees, and the Swiss Alps, Sardinia, Greece, and the Tyrol, the 
chain of the Caucasus, the Himalaya Mountains, the Siberian and Persian Mountains. It is also 
found in the lofty mountains of Central Africa, and toward the borders of the Red Sea, princi- 
pally in the most inaccessible parts of those mountains, and where there is plenty of the larger 
sort of game. It is especially dreaded in Switzerland, where it is said sometimes to carry off chil- 
dren ; but this is not proved. It is asserted with more probability that it sometimes descends 
upon lambs, calves, goats, and chamois, which it finds on the precipices, and striking them with 
its breast, dashes them down the rocks, where it afterward devours them. 
Gertus VULTURE : Vultur. — Of these disgusting but useful and necessary birds, there are 
several genera and many species. The general characteristics are — eyes flush with the head, and 
not buried under the brow as in the eagles ; the tarsi are not covered by protecting plates, but 
reticulated, covered with small scales let into a sort of network, as they generally are in the wad- 
ing birds ; the beak is long, nearly straight in the greater part of the length of its cutting edges, 
and hooked only in a portion toward the tip ; a greater or smaller portion of the head, and even 
of the neck, is bare of feathers, and if not absolutely naked skin, covered only with thin, short, 
and soft down. The power of their talons is by no means in proportion to the size of the birds, 
and they are not much used as weapons ; the bill is the member upon which they chiefly depend, 
and it has more the character of a cutting than of a killing instrument ; their wings are so very 
long that they are obliged to carry them partially expanded when they walk ; they are cowardly 
birds, and feed chiefly upon carrion, and rarely upon living prey ; they often, however, have ter- 
rific battles with each other over the carcasses on which they feed, two of them struggling, scream- 
ing, and fighting for the same mass of putrid flesh. After they have gorged themselves with 
food, their craw forms a large protuberance beneath the furcal bone, a flow of fetid humor distils 
from the nostrils, and they are often in such a state of stupidity and inaction that they are incap- 
able of escape or defense, and one may catch them or knock them down with a stick. Their 
oflBce in nature is a foul one, and when they have performed it they are foul and offensive birds, 
but not upon that account the less in character. They are the scavengers of hot climates, and 
are designed to remove the dead animal matter, which would otherwise breed infection and scat- 
ter pestilence over the land. Hence these birds are protected in many of the cities of tropical 
countries. They have amazing keenness of sight, by which they are able to discern a dead ani- 
mal while flying over it a thousand or two thousand feet in the air. It is probable that they are 
assisted by their sense of smell in finding their food, but the sight is their chief dependence. 
