520 
BIRD-LIFE. 
to that pursued by all feathered robbers, without excep¬ 
tion. * Its food usually consists of bones and other 
carrion. 
The Bearded Vulture is seldom or never to he seen in 
the morning, and appears to remain at its roosting-place 
long after sunrise. About two hours after daybreak it 
begins to go its rounds. The male and female fly in 
close company, or at all events at no great distance from 
one another, along the edges and over the tops of the 
principal peaks of a range of mountains, generally, how¬ 
ever, at an altitude of not more than one hundred and 
fifty feet from the earth; if the range is intersected at 
right angles by other valleys, these are passed over, 
though rarely inspected. This flight is very rapid, and 
accomplished with scarcely a motion of the wings; at 
the same time their keen glance is directed on all sides. 
As soon as one of the pair sees anything, it immediately 
begins to circle over the object, and is joined by its com¬ 
panion, both often spending a considerable time in this 
way, soaring over one spot before they push their 
inspection further. Arrived at the end of one range of 
mountains, they suddenly change their direction towards 
another. With this they travel at the same elevation, 
and do not appear in any way to trouble themselves 
about the valley beneath them, though often flying very 
low over the hill crests which lie in their road. 
The Lammergeir rarely allows anything to interrupt 
its direct line of flight, or cause it to diverge from its 
route. At the hermitage, dedicated to the “ Holy Virgin 
* It is, perhaps, scarcely necessary to remark that this last assertion is 
fallacious; the Kestrel, Barn Owl, and Buzzard, all destroy a great number of 
small mammals, such as mice, rats, &c., let alone that others of the larger Rap tores 
feed on Mammalia, as well as on fish and birds.— W. J. 
