184 Lord Lilford on the Ornithology of Spain. 



infant Magpies from the uest by force after the latter are 

 hatched. 



In a range of cliffs overlooking the plain of Sotomayor, Manuel 

 had expected to find a nest of BoneUi's 'Eagle, Aquila bonellii; but 

 although we several times saw this species in the neighbourhood, 

 we could not ascertain that they had bred there this season, 

 the nest that he had known of in previous years having been 

 appropriated by a pair of Egyptian Vultures, Neophron perc- 

 nopterus. In the plains below I found the Little Ringed Plover, 

 JEgialites minor, in pairs, frequenting the mule-tracks, and 

 apparently not caring about the shingle-beds and sand-banks of 

 the Tagus close at hand, where I once or twice noticed the 

 Kentish Plover, JEgialites cantianus. We shot our first spe- 

 cimen of the Red-necked Nightjar, CaprimuJgus ruficollis, at 

 the foot of the cliffs, and obtained several more specimens of 

 Potamodus cettii, Mej'ops apiaster, Alauda cristata, Oxijlophus 

 glandarius, and the like. Quails, Coturnix communis, were 

 arriving in great numbers, and calling in every direction ; and 

 the clear notes of the Golden Oriole resounded from the oaks. 

 In the valley Manuel shot a fine fox amongst the rocks, which 

 he left as bait to attract Vultures. In many instances, we 

 found that eggs and young of hole-breeding birds — Hoopoes, 

 Woodpeckers, Starlings, and the like — had been devoured by the 

 lizards [Lacerta ocellata), with which the country swarms, and 

 in one case we disturbed a large lizard in the act of devouring 

 the parent Hoopoe on her nest. The keepers assured me that 

 these reptiles destroy an immense number of young rabbits, and 

 will finish a whole sitting of Partridge's eggs at a meal. My dog, 

 a Norfolk retriever, was completely puzzled by these lizards, and 

 on being told to fetch one would sit on his haunches and whine, 

 not knowing what line to take with the gaping, wriggling 

 animal before him, so different to anything he had seen during 

 the course of his orthodox British education. 



On May 3rd we took upwards of twenty eggs of the Spotted 

 Cuckoo from various Magpies' nests in the trees along the road 

 leading to the Puente Largo, a bridge over the Jarama, some 

 three miles from Aranjuez, in one case finding eight Cuckoo's 

 eggs, with five of those of the rightful owner, in one nest. I 



