on Spmiish Ornithology. 75 



hunted the marsh. The next day I obtained a nest of the 

 latter, built in the first fork of a big cork-tree, and contain- 

 ing one AThite egg. 



April 10th. In the course of a long day^s ride up the 

 valley of the Guadalquivir I found seven or eight nests of the 

 Egyptian Vulture on the cliffs which overhang that river. 

 They were placed in holes in the face of the crags, and, from 

 the rottenness of the rock, were mostly inaccessible; but 

 eventually we reached two. The nests were made of rags and 

 wool, no sticks, and were furnished with a most malodorous 

 larder. In the first were two eggs, differing considerably in 

 size and colour : the larger one was dull neutral brown; the 

 other as richly marked as a Peregrine^s. I took another 

 handsome egg from this nest a month later. The bare skin 

 on the face of these Vultures is bright orange-yellow, bill 

 horn-colour, and legs flesh-colour. 



In the highest crag of this ridge were a number of Griffons; 

 but they were not nesting. None do so outside the sierra, the 

 blue peaks of which lay some fifteen miles distant to the east- 

 ward. The large Vultures appear to use this clift' as a resting- 

 place. In a lower part of the range a pair of Golden Eagles 

 had had a nest, or rather nests, for there were two of tliem, 

 which I was told they used alternately. The old Eagles had 

 been shot ; but I saw the nests, about forty yards apart — 

 immense structures of sticks placed on ledges of the crag. 

 These cliffs were also tenanted by a colony of Genets. 

 Their lower slopes were now resplendent with acres of rhodo- 

 dendrons, just bursting into bloom. To-day a considerable 

 arrival of Nightingales occurred ; I have, however, seen them 

 abundant by April 4th. 



Beyond the marisma, on the west, lies the Goto de Donana, 

 a sandy well- wooded district^ uninhabited, and abounding in 

 game, both large and small. On 12th April, at the head of 

 a small cavalcade provisioned for a ten-days^ sojourn in those 

 wilds, I set out thither, via San Lucar, Our first find was a 

 nest of the Short-toed or (more appropriately) Serpent- 

 Eagle, in a big stone-pine. This, like all the nests of this 

 Eagle I have seen, was small, very thick in proportion to 



