Brigands of file Air

Horowhenua Chronicle, 27 November 1935, Page 6

Brigands of file Air

RAIDS BY GREAT BIRDS —* CARRYING OFF A LAAIB MEN BUFFETED WITH WINGS A great bird in the Dordogne, in tho south-west of France, was recently seen in the act of carrying off a lamb weighing about 401 b., stales a London journal. The only bird big enough to do this likely to he seen anywhere in Europe is the lammergoier, occasionally observed in the Alps and the Pyrenees. It is a vulture, and one of the brigands of the air.

The greatest of the Old World birds of prey, the lammergoior is a link between the vultures and the falcons;' it is about five feet long and four feet high when at rest, and has a wingspread of from nine to ten feet. Of its fierceness there lias never been a

doubt; il has been known to tty t< v make men fall from great heights by I buffeting them with its wing* as the;., climbed the mountains. Tin; one doubt as to its ability to earrv off lambs ha.- arisen I rum la*; be* lief that the •■■ripping power of its feet has been thought to be comparatively weak, but the fate of the Dordogne lamb settles that point. Another habit of the lammergemr links the bird with tut event sadty famous in history. Its practice 1s toearrv into the air and let fall on n rock below n bone or a tortoise which it. desires to crack. It was one. of those birds, tradition says, which mistook the bald head of the immortal Greek tragic poet, Aeschylus, for a white' stone, and lot fall' a tortoise, which killed him, .