174 Mr. Howai'd Saunders on 



fine haunt of raptorial birds. The shots and cries of the beaters 

 seemed to have fetched up all the Vultures of the district to 

 see what was the matter ; and at one time the air was alive with 

 Vultur monachus, Gyps fulvus, and Neophron percnopterus. I 

 also noticed a pair of Gypaetus barbatus, several of Aquila bo- 

 nellii, and one of A. chrysaetus. But the most numerous on 

 that occasion was decidedly Vultur monachus ; and the rarest was 

 Neophron percnopterus. 



The severity of the season had been such that it was useless 

 to go up to Granada in February, in time for working the 

 Sierra Nevada, after Lsemmergeiers ; and the accounts of wet and 

 bad weather in Seville kept me in Malaga longer than I had ori- 

 ginally intended. On the 10th of February I took steamer for 

 Cadiz, and arrived there the following day without encounter- 

 ing any further novelty than the sight of hundreds of Gannets 

 [Sula bassana) fishing ofi" Tarifa. On the 19th, on my way 

 up to Seville, I observed several Storks {Ciconia alba) and 

 large flocks of Cranes [Gi-us cinei-ea), which seemed far less 

 alarmed at the train than I should have expected ; indeed one 

 party allowed it to come within a hundred yards. I saw several 

 specimens of Grus virgo in the flesh, and one which had been 

 captured alive ; but I never succeeded in shooting one. I recog- 

 nized my old acquaintance Circaetus gallicus and Harriers every- 

 where. Round the grand cathedral numbers of the Common 

 Kestrel were hovering, also a few of the Lesser Kestrel [Tin- 

 nunculus cenchris) ; but the main body of the last does not come 

 over from Africa till April. Swallows I had noticed on the 5th 

 February, and now I found the House- Martins {Chelidon urbica) 

 busy building their nests ; but even they were not quite the 

 earliest breeders, as I heard of two eggs of Milvus ictinus taken 

 near the city in January. 



To avoid repetition hereafter, I will pass on at once to Gra- 

 nada, where I arrived on the 13th of March, to find the Sierra 

 Nevada quite impracticable, owing to heavy falls of snow, all 

 the native cazadores refusing to go at any price. 



There are here two good museums, in which, besides ornitho- 

 logical treasures, I found fine specimens of Capra hispanica. 

 The stufifer assured me that Vultur cinereus bred in the rocks of 



