The Bearded Griffon (Gypaëtus barbatus, Gould) is the celebrated Lämmergeyer, described by Buffon under the name of the Golden Vulture. It owes its name to a tuft of stiff hair which is under the beak: the loftiest mountains of Europe, Asia, and Africa are its habitat. Its aerie, which is of considerable dimensions, it builds amongst the most inaccessible rocks. On the old continent it is the largest of all the birds of prey, and sometimes reaches five feet in length. Its spread of wing generally measures nine or ten feet. Sometimes these limits are exceeded for one was killed during the French expedition to Egypt, in the presence of Monge and Bertholet, which measured upwards of fourteen feet.
The Griffon is endowed with wonderful strength of body and powers of flight. It is not, therefore, surprising that it attacks animals of considerable size, such as calves, lambs, deer, chamois, &c., and that it succeeds in overpowering them. Like the Eagle, it is reported to perpetrate the following ruse, one almost telling of reasoning powers. Waiting until its victim stands isolated on the edge of a precipice, it flies suddenly against the poor creature, beats it with its wings, and forces it to fall over into the abyss below, where the Griffon descends to feed on the mangled carcass.
It has been asserted that it sometimes ventures to employ this manœuvre against the chamois-hunter, to make him lose his equilibrium in difficult passes. But in spite of all the wonderful stories told, it cannot be admitted that it is capable of carrying off lambs or children, for the weakness of its claws will not support a prey of weight; it is therefore obliged to rend its victims in pieces, and devour them where killed.
Although it cannot carry off children, it is nevertheless true that it sometimes attacks them, as the two following facts will prove.
In 1819 two children were devoured by Griffons on the environs of Saxe-Gotha, which induced the Government to set a price on the heads of these birds. M. Crespon, in his "Ornithologie du Gard," relates the second fact:—
"For many years," says he, "I was in possession of a living Griffon which exhibited no very great courage towards some other large birds of prey which were kept with it, but it was different as regarded children, upon whom it attempted to spring, spreading out its wings as if it wished to strike them. Latterly, I let this bird run about free in my garden. Watching for a moment when no one saw it, it darted upon one of my nieces, two years and a half old, and, having seized her by the top of her shoulders, threw her down to the ground. Fortunately her cries warned us of the danger she was in, and I hastened to her rescue, and found that the child had suffered no other injury but fright and the tearing of her dress."
This bird shows great courage in defence of its offspring. Joseph Scherrer, a chamois-hunter, having first killed the male parent, climbed to an aerie to obtain the young, and had to engage in such a furious encounter with the female that it was with immense difficulty he saved himself by shooting the bird, from which he had received some severe wounds.
They live in pairs, and a number together are rarely seen. This is common to all animals which nature has endowed with a great amount of physical strength, for it is the weak only which practise the maxim, "Union is strength."
These birds were once far more plentiful in Europe than now. The reason of this is the great havoc which was made among them in the last century. Even at the present day pursuit of them is encouraged by the grant of a reward for each individual killed. The number of eggs they lay being limited (two), there is but little cause for surprise that the species is very sensibly diminishing.
In the birds which belong to the Sarcoramphus family the base of the bill is furnished with a ring of long feathers, and the bill itself is surmounted with a thick and scalloped fleshy crest; from this peculiarity of organisation they derive their name, the signification of Sarcoramphus being "fleshy-billed."