Such of these birds as inhabit Asia and Africa are equally formidable. Bruce relates a fact that came under his own notice, well calculated to show that those on the latter continent are by no means behind their European congeners, either in audacity or strength. The traveller and his companions, while in the mountains, were seated at their dinner with several large dishes of goat's flesh before them, when a Bearded Vulture suddenly appeared. It did not swoop rapidly from a height, but came slowly flying along the ground, sat down close to the meat, within the ring formed by the men, and deliberately put its foot into the pan in which a large piece of meat was boiling, but, as may be supposed, soon withdrew it; there were, however, two other pieces, a leg and a shoulder; into these it struck its claws and carried them off. After a short time it returned for more, but was shot by one of the men, who by this time had recovered from their astonishment at such an unwelcome and unexpected intrusion. The breeding time of the Bearded Vulture occurs in Europe during the first months of the year, and in Asia and Africa during the spring. The nest is variously constructed, and we cannot do better than give the words in which those built in Arabia were described by our guides: "The nest of this robber and son of a robber (may Allah curse him and all his generations!) is placed where the sons of Adam can rarely penetrate, and is formed of a huge bed of goat's hair, gathered from the animals the wretch has slaughtered. The nest contains but two eggs, with a white shell, spotted all over with the blood of its prey." The brother of Dr. Brehm was the first European who succeeded in finding one of the many nests built by these birds amid the solitudes of the Pyrenees. This eyrie was about five feet in diameter at its base and its height three feet; the interior was about two feet wide and five inches deep; the sides were constructed of branches varying greatly both in length and thickness; upon these was a heap of twigs, in the middle of which the hollow of the nest was excavated; the interior was lined with a bed of various kinds of hair. The eggs of such European species as we have seen were large and almost spherical, with a coarse-grained, dirty white shell, spotted with reddish brown, dark grey, or ochreous yellow. As may be easily imagined, the capture of these huge and fierce birds is attended with much difficulty; the Swiss endeavour to lure them down during the winter by sprinkling blood upon the snow, or laying a trap baited with carrion near the spots upon which the eyries are built. * * * * *