Lord Lilford on the Ornithology of Spain. 387 



darrama, " Rahilargo " also, the Spanish Magpie, was rather 

 conspicuous by his scarcity ; and I discovered that all the eggs of 

 this species brought to me by the lads came from an enclosed 

 shrubbery of a few acres in extent, immediately adjoining the 

 village. 



As I was still unable to walk, I could of course do but very 

 little in the way of collecting, and was forced to confine myself 

 to the use of my eyes instead of my breech-loader, thus missing 

 on June 5th a chance of obtaining perhaps the rarest bird which 

 I met with during this visit to Spain. We were returning 

 from a drive in the pine-forest, from which we had just emerged 

 on the road near Valsain, when my attention was attracted by 

 our chico (who was on the box) exclaiming, *'^Que pajaro es 

 aquel?" and on looking up I saw a beautiful specimen of 

 La Marmora's Falcon [Hypotriorchis eleonora) passing us slowly 

 at not more than ten yards' distance. This individual was in 

 the plumage which so nearly resembles that of the Hobby and 

 is, I believe, that of the second year. We halted, and I had the 

 pleasure, not unmixed with vexation, of observing for several 

 minutes the evolutions of three of this rare species without 

 being able to secure a specimen. All three were busily engaged 

 in catching insects, over a marshy open spot close to the road, 

 seizing them in their talons, and shifting them into their mouths 

 with great ease and rapidity; they appeared totally regardless 

 of our presence, and all repeatedly passed within a few yards of 

 the carriage. One of these Falcons was of a uniform sooty- 

 brown ; the third was apparently in the same stage of plumage 

 as the first we noticed, but not nearly so brightly or distinctly 

 marked. The extreme length of wing in this Falcon imme- 

 diately arrests the attention of any one accustomed to Hawks. 

 This peculiarity is even more striking in La Marmora's Falcon 

 than in the Common Hobby ; and the dificrence in size between 

 the two species is much more remarkable on the wing than I 

 should have imagined. On informing Manuel of what we had 

 seen, he told me that he had often observed small Hawks near 

 the Escorial engaged in catching insects, but never any of the 

 H. eleonorce. We revisited the spot where we saw these Falcons 

 several evenings in vain ; we never saw them again. 



