386 Lord Lilford on the Ornithology of Spain. 



and I at once sent off the chicos of the family to seek and bring 

 in all the eggs that they could find, as our hostess informed me 

 that one of her sons was a demonio for bird's-nesting and would 

 soon enlist the flower of the youth of San Ildefonso in my 

 behalf. The result this evening was a nest with five eggs of the 

 Blue Magpie, and an egg of the Cinereous Vulture, which last 

 the boys assured me they had found on the ground at a spot 

 much frequented by this species, which breeds in the pine-forest 

 close at hand, and is by far the most common Vulture in the 

 Castiles. This egg is slightly smaller than those of Gijpsfulvus 

 in my collection, and is of a uniform clouded reddish-pink 

 coloui', very much resembling some varieties of the egg of Aquila 

 chrysaetus. I have no hesitation in ascribing this egg to Vultur 

 monachus, as, although I was unfortunately too late to find the 

 eggs in situ myself, the fragments of egg-shells found in and 

 below several nests of this Vulture exactly corresponded with 

 this specimen, and I found that Gyps fulvus, of vvhich species a 

 few pairs used in former years to nest in a range of cliffs near 

 the village, is now comparatively scarce in the district, only one 

 individual coming under our notice during our stay at San 

 Ildefonso, which fell to Manuel's gun, and is now in my collec- 

 tion. 1 received a letter from Manuel from Aranjuez informing 

 me that he had been too late at Villamejor for the nests of 

 Aquila heliaca, but had obtained there several eggs of the Booted 

 Eagle with the parent birds, besides many other species. M. 

 Michel and he arrived at San Ildefonso on June 5th. In the 

 meantime the boys had brought me many eggs of different 

 species, amongst them those of the Common Sparrow-Hawk 

 {Accipiter nisus), which is abundant here, though I never met 

 with it at Aranjuez, Red-necked Nightjar, Blue Magpie, Spec- 

 tacled Warbler, Missel Thrush, Blackbird, Common Swift, and 

 Grey and Yellow Wagtails {Motacilla sulphurea and Budytes 

 flava) . We drove to Segovia, six miles off, seeing on our way a 

 good number of White Storks {Ciconia alba), Common and 

 Black Kites, Woodchats, and Russet Wheatears [Saxicola stapa- 

 zina), but not a single Bee-eater, Spotted Cuckoo, or Common 

 Magpie, which birds, so abundant about Madrid and Aran- 

 juez, appear to be very scarce on this northern side of the Gua- 



