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OSSIFRAGE (peres = ‘the breaker,’ Lev_11:13, Deu_14:12, RV [Note: Revised Version.] gier eagle).—This is the Lämmergeier (Gypaetus barbatus), a great bird with a spread of ten feet across, distinguished from the true vultures by its neck being covered by dirty-white feathers. It occurs in the ravines around the Dead Sea, but is apparently gradually becoming extinct in Palestine. The Heb. peres and Latin ossifragus are both due to its habit of carrying large bones, tortoises, etc., to a great height and then dropping them upon the ground in order that it may get access to the soft contents.
E. W. G. Masterman.