Lammergeiers are generally found among high mountains, where they prey upon hares and marmots, and even upon rats and mice. They will visit the flocks, too, which are feeding upon the grassy slopes, and carry off kids and lambs. Chamois, when formerly they were more plentiful than now, used to be attacked by them, and their favorite plan was to swoop down upon them when they were standing on the brink of a precipice, strike them over into the depths below by a stroke of their powerful wings, and then descend to feed upon their mangled bodies. The plumage of the lammergeier is grayish brown above and nearly white below. The feathers of the neck are white, and there is also a pale streak running down the middle of those upon the back. The lammergeier makes a great clumsy nest of sticks, which is sometimes placed on a ledge of a lofty cliff, and sometimes in the topmost branches of a very tall tree. Two eggs are laid, which are dirty white in color, with brownish blotches. THE CONDOR The condor is another very large vulture, inhabiting the great mountain chain of the Andes. There it may be seen soaring high in air, its keen eyes intently scanning the ground beneath it; and it may fly to and fro for hours, rising and falling and sweeping round in great circles, and yet never once flap its wings! Condors live for the most part on llamas which have died a natural death, or which have been killed by pumas and only partly devoured; but two or three of them will unite together, when they are hungry, in order to kill sheep or cattle. In color the condor is grayish black, with a ruff of white feathers round the lower part of the neck. On the head of the male is a large fleshy wattle. It makes no nest at all, but simply lays its two white eggs on a rocky ledge high up on the mountainside. A variety of the condor inhabited Mexico and southern California until recent years, but has now become almost or quite extinct. It differed little from that of the Andes in either appearance or habits. THE SECRETARY-VULTURE The African secretary-vulture was formerly regarded as a kind of crane, on account of its long stilt-like legs, and owes its name to the curious tuft of very long feathers at the back of its head, which cause it to look rather as though it were carrying a number of quill pens behind its ears. The two middle feathers of the tail, also, are exceedingly long, so that when the bird is standing upright their tips almost rest upon the ground. The secretary-bird spends its time on the ground, where it wanders over the plains in pairs, and feeds upon small mammals, lizards, tortoises, frogs, and locusts. It is also said to kill and devour even large snakes, but whether it really does so is not quite certain. EAGLES--SYMBOLS OF POWER