96 Mr. A. Chapman's Rouffh Notes 



gular poucli, wliich appears to be chronically distended 

 during the breeding-season — a fact I have not seen recorded. 

 The black feathers on the lower part of the neck are long 

 and hackle-like. 



June in Sjjain is a month of intense heat. According to 

 the Spanish proverb^ " Nothing but a dog or an Englishman '' 

 ventures out of doors ; nor, according to my experience, is 

 there much inducement to do so. The teeming variety of 

 bird-life which characterizes April and May is now conspi- 

 cuously absent. Migration is suspended, and there is no 

 movement of passage-birds. There is no longer the accus- 

 tomed quantity of large Hawks hunting the '' campina ; " and 

 even those birds which remain seem to keep out of sight, 

 sheltering from the blazing heat. This is the time to get 

 the eggs of the Herons, for any one who has sufficient pluck 

 to ride, say, .50 or GO miles through the scorching suffocating 

 marisma, where the dothering heat reflected from the cracked 

 mud is simply intolerable. 



Perhaps the most interesting birds at this season are the 

 newly-fledged young of the Raptores. The young Imperial 

 Eagles are of a beautiful uniform rich tawny colour, and at 

 midday frequent the trees where they were hatched. The 

 plumage of these birds rapidly fades with age and exposure 

 to the sun, and appears by the following spring almost white 

 at a distance. The next stage is the acquisition of the black 

 plumage, I think, during their second autumn. These black 

 feathers coming gradually and irregularly among the light 

 ones, give the bird at that j^eriod a peculiar spotted or pie- 

 bold appearance. I also obtained young Kites {Milvus ictinus) 

 in the same way — very handsome birds, much ruddier than 

 the old ones in April. The young of M. migrans, on the 

 contrary, are less pleasing than their parents, being, in fact, 

 a pale, rather " washed out " reproduction of them. Towards 

 the end of the month the young Montagu's Harriers are on 

 the wing; they have dark brown backs, each feather edged 

 with chestnut, a white nape, and rich orange-tawny breasts. 

 An adult male, shot on the 10th, was much blacker than 

 those killed in April, caused by the wearing of the edges of 



