400 Mr. H. Saunders on the Ornithology 



was well that 1 had lost no time ; for on putting the extractor in 

 on one side of the best-marked egg, the chick attempted to force 

 its way out on the other^ and actually broke the shell ; so the 

 extraction cost both time and trouble. The male Eagle was 

 brought in a few days afterwards. 



During January and February the winter, even in the moun- 

 tains, had scarcely been felt ; but in March cold set in, and, al- 

 though I visited Granada, any expedition to the Sierra Nevada 

 was again out of the question. At the beginning of April the 

 trees were but just bursting into leaf, and the only nest 1 took 

 was one of theCitril-finch in the avenues leading to the Alhambra. 

 On my return to Malaga I paid two more visits to the moun- 

 tains, where I called upon a colony of GrifFon-Vultures, obtain- 

 ing many eggs and several young birds. Although we never 

 passed a day without seeing at least one Gypaetus harbatus, yet 

 my men did not discover its eyry till May 4th, when they took 

 a young one, now in my possession, as are also two down-clad 

 young of Aquila chrysaetus taken May 27th, all apparently 

 hatched about the same time, unless the young Gypaetes prove of 

 slower growth than the latter. Two nests of Saxicola cachin- 

 nans, one of Petrocincla cyanea, and two young birds of Bubo 

 maxinius, with a few eggs of Neophron percnopterus, were all I 

 obtained in the mountains this year. 



My cazador, Manuel, at Seville, had not been idle ; and on 

 my arrival there I sent him down to the Cotos, being prevented 

 from accompanying him, owing to the indisposition of my wife. 

 In the clump of trees where Aquila heliaca regularly breeds, 

 but wliose nest last year was empty, he found one egg, somewhat 

 incubated; in another nest of the same species, however, he found 

 four eggs, which, judging from the family likeness, are all the 

 produce of the same female. On blowing them, one proved con- 

 siderably incubated; another, having been partially so, had turned 

 bad ; and the remaining two were nearly fresh. The usual list 

 of Goto birds and eggs, with a much damaged female Circus 

 pallidus and two eggs, and two very black males of C. cinera- 

 ceus, were the fruits of this expedition ; and subsequent ones 

 produced little novelty. About this time Lord Lilford arrived 

 in Seville, and took over my Manuel, whilst I proceeded to his 



