THE BEARDED VULTURE. 
519 
which is usually inaccessible. If, however, it is possible 
to reach the spot, the eye is arrested by the immense bed 
which this scoundrel has formed out of the hair of the 
young kids he has murdered: on this is found one, and 
sometimes two eggs, for the ‘ Biidj ’ is so greedy that he 
only hatches one or two eggs; whereas the Partridge 
often lays as many as fifty! Probably he is aw T are that 
our boys guard the herds so well, that he would find 
some difficulty in procuring food enough to support his 
voracious brood! The eggs are whitish, but soiled with 
the blood of his victims.” 
From this statement it will be seen I had some reason 
to place faith in the stories related by naturalists such as 
Naumann and Tschudi. I changed my opinion, however, 
when I met with the bird again in Spain, and had ample 
opportunities of watching its habits. To my intense 
astonishment, the Spanish hunters did not regard this 
bird in the slightest degree as a bold, merciless robber: 
all asserted that it fed on carrion, especially bones, only 
attacking living animals when driven by necessity. They 
called it “ Quebranta-huesos,” or the “ Bone-smasher,” 
and assured me that this favourite food, as I have 
previously stated, was broken in a singular manner. 
My later observations proved nothing which would 
justify me in treating their statements as otherwise 
than correct, so I was forced to come to the conclusion 
that the Lammergeir had been much maligned. Since 
my first account of this bird, I have read a number of 
communications from other observers, and gather from 
the whole that the Bearded Vulture is nought else than a 
weak, cowardly bird of prey, gifted neither in mind nor 
body to any very great extent, and one who but rarely 
carries away small mammals: conduct similar, indeed, 
