262 Lord Lilford — Notes on 



have never had the good fortune to meet with on any part of 

 the coasts of Spain. The efficient members of our party 

 obtained a good series of Shearwaters_, Piiffinus kuhli, and a 

 smaller species which appears to be now generally accepted 

 as Piijffinus anglorum, but is, in my opinion, a very distinct 

 bird, intermediate in size between the two above named. 

 Colonel Irby had the luck to wing a Skua with a bullet, the 

 only bird of this family obtained out of some few seen, and 

 brought it on board alive; it proved to be an immature 

 specimen of Richardson^s Skua [Stercorarius crepidatus) , in 

 the almost uniform deep brown stage of plumage. No Grebe 

 was obtained by our party and but few seen : those few, from 

 the description given to me, were, I think, without doubt. 

 Eared Grebes {Podiceps nigricolUs) . Colonel Irby made an 

 expedition by railway in company with Rafael Mena, a keen 

 professional ornithologist (with whom I had had much cor- 

 respondence and many dealings), into the Sierra in search of 

 a nest of Bearded Vulture ; but although they saw one of 

 these grand birds, they could not discover this yearns breed- 

 ing-site, and returned with no prey but a Red-billed Chough 

 [Pyrrhocorax graculus), of which species they saw a great 

 number. I may here mention that I have at various times 

 received from Mena four young Bearded Vultures alive, two 

 of which, taken from the Sierras near Malaga in 1878, are 

 now living and flourishing at Lilford ; one of these birds has 

 acquired a certain amount of the tawny-red colouring on 

 throat and breast, which is so characteristic a distinction of 

 adult birds of this species in a wild state. Mena assured me 

 most positively that although the young Bearded Vulture is 

 generally hatched in February, it remains in the nest till late 

 in June, though fully feathered and capable of flight long 

 before that time. He is well acquainted with the Sierras of 

 the neighbourhood and their human and feathered inhabi- 

 tants, and in most years could command the produce of two 

 or three eyries of the Bearded Vulture. It is remarkable 

 that although almost every bird killed in the neighbourhood 

 of Malaga, and intended for preservation, passes through 

 Mena's hands, he had not, before this visit of ours, ever 



