518 
BIRD-LIFE. 
domain; it is as much part and parcel of these high-lands 
as yonder precipice, the rushing waterfall, the alpine 
rose, and the everlasting snow: wherever the hand of 
Pluto has heaped together a mighty world of mountains 
and heaved them to the skies, wherever the shining, 
glistening snow lies, there our bird will not be found 
wanting. Every mountain claims it as a right. 
The Lammergeir is a Vulture of a nobler class, and not 
an Eagle, though the legends we have heard in connection 
with this bird are almost beyond credence, and naturalists 
have had to receive them with caution. In most books of 
travel and Natural History, one reads wondrous stories of 
this bird’s bold and cruel deeds. It is accused of preci¬ 
pitating the daring chamois-hunter into the abyss below 
by a well-chosen swoop, and is said to seize little children 
which are left unguarded, bearing them off as food for its 
nestlings among the clouds. This bird is declared the 
enemy of all game, from the graceful chamois to the 
smallest bird. I pride myself upon having been the first 
to free its reputation from such false accusations. 
I first met with this magnificent bird in Arabia Petrsea, 
in the neighbourhood of Mount Sinai. Five of these 
creatures, circling over a small flock of goats, were 
being driven away by the loud and persistent cries of 
the herdsmen. My companions—Bedouins, from Wadi 
Fe'irahn—assured me that the “Biidj,” as they term the 
Lammergeir, will dash down amongst the herd and do 
considerable damage: one of them even gave me a 
description of the bird’s nest:— 
“The house of this robber, and son of a robber,—• 
Allah curse him and his posterity!—is placed on the 
crest of a mountain, in the hollow of a rock or crevice. It 
is rare that a son of Adam can ever reach his citadel, 
