THROUGH WILD EUROPE 37 



of sticks outside, with a finer lining of grasses and 

 small stuff, was a young bird. This youngster, which 

 was still in down, appeared to be in a very limp con- 

 dition and unable to raise its body or even its head, 

 but lay quite prone and prostrate in the bottom of 

 the nest. Whether this was due to the heat or to 

 an enforced fast of some duration it is, of course, 

 impossible to say. It is well known that the adult 

 Vultures, as indeed is the case with all birds of 

 prey, can exist without food for an almost incredible 

 number of days ; and that when they get the chance 

 they make up for past shortcomings in one tre- 

 mendous gorge. Of course even in Spain it must 

 happen sometimes that the supply of carcases runs 

 short for the enormous number^ of the great flesh- 

 eating birds, which are entirely dependent on what 

 dead bodies they can find — for they never kill any- 

 thing for themselves. And if these times of scarcity 

 happen in the spring, it follows that the young, as 

 well as the adult birds, must sometimes be obliged 

 to go without food for some time. Be this as it 

 may, this young Griffon appeared to be in the last 

 stage of exhaustion. 



Still lower down, on a ledge which we could only 

 reach with our rope, were two more Griffons' nests, 

 each of which held one great, round, white egg, and 

 also the nest of an Egyptian Vulture, with two 

 beautifully marked eggs of a rich reddish-brown. 



