the Ornithology of Spain. 181 



the old nests remained, to the number of several hundreds. They 

 were all in bushes, at from six to fifteen feet up. As we were riding 

 through a pine-wood, a large bird of prey dashed off her nest, 

 and Manuel pronounced it to be "a very rare Eagle," not the same 

 as the Booted by any means. We accordingly left the place, 

 and, unsaddling at the nearest cover, spent upwards of two hours 

 iu vain attempts to obtain the bird. The great difficulty was in 

 the absence of scrub as cover, and in the number of Black Kites 

 which were dashing about everywhere. I managed to observe 

 the bird well through my glass, and heard it repeatedly utter a 

 mewing cry. My belief is that it was a Buzzard, either Buteo 

 vulgaris or B. tachardus ; but it certainly was not the Booted 

 Eagle. The nest, which was plentifully lined with green boughs, 

 contained two eggs — the one rather small, of a rough granulated 

 texture, exactly, to my eye, like that of the Booted Eagle, the 

 other slightly marked, of a more shining texture, and, in a word, 

 a regular Buzzard's egg. Both eggs were considerably incubated; 

 but unfortunately it did not occur to me, at the time of extract- 

 ing the chicks, to examine the tarsi particularly. It has entered 

 my mind that perhaps the Buzzard had taken possession of the 

 Eagle's nest with one egg laid, and kept it afterwards. Other- 

 wise it shows that the Booted Eagle is not singular in the use of 

 green boughs as lining. 



Emerging from the large timber, in the old boles of which 

 numbers of Jackdaws [Corvus monedula) had their nests, we put 

 up a Bittern {Botaurus stellaris) and a Purple Heron {Ardea 

 purpurea) simultaneously from opposite sides of a swamp ; and, 

 trying to mark down both, got neither. A long and ineffectual 

 stalk after a fine Great White Heron {Ardea alba) and a hasty 

 raid on the breeding-grounds of the Pratincole [Glareola pra- 

 tincola) and Stilt {Himantopus Candidas) closed that day. 



At daybreak next morning we turned our backs on anything 

 like a shrub, and plodded for miles across a vast plain, starting 

 numbers of Short-toed Larks [Alauda brachydadyla) from their 

 nests, whose contents we were often too late to save from the dogs, 

 which showed a wonderful talent for egging. Hundreds of Sterna 

 hybrida wheeled round us; Buff-backed and Squacco-Herons and 

 Little Egrets [Ardea coromandra, A. ralloides, and A. garzetta) 



