the Ornithology of Spain. 175 



the Sierra — an assertion that I was then slow to believe, but 

 have since had proof of its correctness. I had also the pleasure 

 of handling a tine Lsemmergeier of the year, which was brought 

 in by one of the cazadores. 



Having to go through another " course" at the baths of 

 Archena, I decided upon taking the little-used road across 

 country to Murcia, As far as Baza there is a small dihgence, 

 which starts somewhere between 1 and 2 a.m. ; and at 4o^clock 

 on a March morning I found myself in the gorges of the Sierra 

 Nevada, down which, on icy breeze, swept snow everywhere. At 

 sunrise the scenery was superb; and any traveller who has merely 

 visited Granada, without going on as far as Guadix, has little 

 idea of the real beauties of that range. Neither in Switzerland 

 nor the Pyrenees, not even in the Peruvian Andes, have I 

 ever seen anything tiner than the back of the Sierra Nevada, 

 whereas the prospect from Granada, though always beautiful, 

 is surpassed by several views I could name. A pair of Lsem- 

 mergeiers, accompanied, to my surprise, by a bird of the year, 

 swept over us in circles for some time, and once came almost 

 within a long shot, as if they knew that there was no danger to 

 be apprehended from our clumsy conveyance. Here alone was 

 a sufficient reward for getting up at midnight and being frozen 

 afterwards. Ravens [Corvus corax) were numerous; and as we 

 emerered from the defiles of the mountains, and came down 

 upon the desolate tablelands, we fell in with large flocks of 

 Choughs, which consisted, I believe, of both species [Pyrrho- 

 corax alpinus and P.graculus) ; with regard to our own bird (P. 

 graculus) I am quite certain, as I got quite near enough to dis- 

 tinguish the brilliant red bill. We reached Baza at sundown, and 

 after a good supper, washed down by the famous red wine of the 

 district, and an animated wrangle with regard to mules for the 

 next day, I retired to rest in a huge trapezium of a room. 



For the following two days (usually three days^ journey), 

 there was literally no road open, though one is being made in 

 places. The system here is to make a bit (of, say, three leagues), 

 then leave a gap, and go on afresh ; so that the best way, even 

 on mule-back, is to go across country at once. It was a regu- 

 lar white fog in which we left Baza at daybreak ; and though I 



