68 Mr. A. Cliapmau's Rough Notes 



Black Kites, three or four of which were constantly soaring 

 within sight, while the familiar notes of Cuckoo and Cushat 

 reminded one of home. 



Towards evening we entered the rugged defiles of the 

 sierra^ the towering ranges of which, surrounding us on 

 every side, bore unmistakable evidence of their long struggles 

 with glacial ice in bygone ages. Each tall slope consisted of 

 a regular series of vertical bastions, or buttresses, extending 

 nearly to the summit, and alternating with deep glens in 

 singular uniformity. The conformation of these sierras 

 recalled irresistibly to my recollection the distant valleys of 

 Spitzbergen, where I have seen the power of ice in actual 

 operation and carving out those dreary arctic hills after pre- 

 cisely the same pattern. Here, however, dense jungle had 

 long taken the place of snow, and the wild boar now occupied 

 strongholds vfhere possibly the reindeer had once ranged in 

 search of scanty lichen. 



Of birds, the most conspicuous were the Griffon Vultures ; 

 in small parties of six or eight, these huge birds maintain an 

 incessant surveillance of the sierras. In the short periods of 

 our " drives " (perhaps an hour) I often noticed the same 

 beat explored by two or even three parties. They hunt the 

 sierras comparatively low, thus ditfering widely from the 

 enormous altitudes at which their patrols search the plains. 

 These Vultiu'es breed gregariously ; and in a high range of 

 limestone-crags at the Boca de la Foz, a fine abrupt chasm 

 separating the Sierras del Valle and de las Cabras, I reached 

 several nests. They were moderately large flat structures of 

 sticks, placed on narrow ledges in the face of the crags. 

 None contained eggs on 28th March. The old birds, when 

 shot, have a most offensive smell ; their claws and long 

 feathers are much abraded by attrition on the rocks, and 

 their whole plumage has a worn and faded appearance in 

 harmony with the decay and death in which they rejoice. Of 

 other birds observed in the sierra in March, the Blue Thrush 

 and Bla<^k Chat were abundant, sevei'al colonies of Rock- 

 Martin [Cotyle rupfislris, as well as such common species as 

 Red-legged Partridge, Blackbird, &c. A pair of Golden 



