LOBD LlLKOllU ON llAl'TOUIAL BIRDS IN THE LILFORD AVIARIES. 577 
of tills species is generally placed in a hole or small cave in 
a precipitous face of clilf. The complement of eggs is two, but 
I am assured that it is very seldom that more than one young bird 
is hatched. Almost all the Spanish specimens of eggs of this 
species that have come under my notice are of a uniform reddish 
brown, but specimens from Eastern Europe seem, as a rule, to be 
of much lighter comple.vion, a pale pinkish cream colour being the 
Itrovailing tint. The Bearded Vulture generally lays early in 
January. I have heard of two slightly incubated eggs having been 
taken from a nest near Malaga, on December 2Gth ult.; but the 
shepherds of the southern sierras iiositively assert that the young 
bird never leaves the nest before June. I have good cause to 
believe this to be really the case, but am quite at a loss to a.ssign 
any cause for this reluctance to quit the nursery. Though I have 
seen a good many of the present species in Spain, Sardinia, and 
Turkey, I never observed more than three together, and that 
number on one occasion only. I cannot believe the many stories 
that are told of lambs, kids, fawns, and children carried ofl’ by 
I.ammergcyers, as these birds are frequently called; but I do tpiito 
believe that they would stoop at any of the animals just named on 
a ticklish ledge of rock, so as to cause it to fall and bo killed, with 
a view to a future feast. The manner in which these birds hunt 
a valley for their prey has been so admirably described in the 
‘Ibis’ by more able and e.xpericnced pens than mine, that I will 
not tax the patience of my readers by any attempt in that direction, 
but conclude my remarks for the present with some brief observa- 
tions upon the Neophron, or so-called Efj>/pfian Vulture {Neophron 
2 )ercnopfeno^), of which species I have two, now fully adult, speci- 
mens, obtained from Spain some years ago. Tliese birds are full of 
petulance and what may very legitimately bo called cuasedness, and 
are for ever teasing the Kites, Buzzards, and Harriers that are kept 
in the same yard with them. The intention of these Neophrons 
appears not to be to inllict any damage, but merely to annoy the 
other birds by ousting thenr from any favourite resting-place. 
There is, to my eyes, something indescribably mean and repulsive 
in the expression of this species; but far be it from mo to deny the 
v.aluo of their services to the human race in hot countries, as 
scavengers. No carrion, garbage, or ordure, comes amiss to them ; 
and as they have naturally but little fear of man, their good works 
