OUR LAST WEEK IN FUERTEVENTURA 5 I 



climb up the loose cinders except by a winding- foot- 

 path, which led us, after about half-an-hour's walking, 

 to the summit of one side of the crater ; this seemed 

 to dip down almost as deep as the base of the moun- 

 tain, the mountain itself being really nothing but the 

 sides of a oio-antic cone. Our small ^uide, Zachariah, 

 now pointed out a large face of rock, standing out a 

 little way below the summit of the crater ; in this rock 

 was a good-sized cave, within which we could just 

 make out one of the Vultures sitting. She remained 

 till we had walked half-way round towards the cave, 

 and then flew off and settled a little way above the 

 nest. 



On reaching the rock we found that the cave was 

 easily accessible from below, and with a little care it 

 would be quite possible to photograph the nest, though 

 there was very little light inside. I first went along 

 to the cave, in which I found two eggs ; they turned 

 out to be quite fresh, and were of a dirty white 

 colour, marked very sparingly and indistinctly with dark 

 reddish brown. There was a sort of nest made of a 

 little wool ; the cave also contained one or two bleached 

 bones. I asked Lorenzo to hand me my camera, which 

 he was hugging in a very determined manner on the 

 narrow path which overlooked this rock, but to my 

 surprise, for the first time since we had been out 

 together, he definitely asserted his authority, saying 

 repeatedly. No qiiiero, Sefior, no quiero, and at the 

 same time waving his forefinger backwards and for- 

 wards in front of his face, a habit many of the 

 Spaniards have when they wish to imply a very deter- 

 mined negative. I think he considered himself responsi- 



