The Oo hoists' Record^ September r, 1921. 53 



large nest in the crown, about 80 to 90 feet up, well protected by 

 the main branches which bulged out all round and then to some 

 extent recurved to contain the nest like the fingers of one's hand. 

 I would mention here that there are no lower branches to Spanish 

 pine trees, they are all lopped when the trees are young. Well, 

 we knocked and kicked this tree and out flew an undoubted Bonelli's 

 Eagle, HieracBtiis fasciatus fasciatiis. The incident was most 

 opportune to prove our guide's assertion. The climb was a very 



stiff one. M started with a hobble rope around the tree as 



well as his climbing irons but, losing one end of it when half-way 

 up, he had to continue without it. The bulging top of the tree 

 was very awkward, but he finally got into the nest and found 

 two little Eaglets in whitish down, possibly a week old, also half 

 a Red-legged Partridge. One we left but the other was sacrificed 

 and I sent it, duly formalined, to the British Museum (Natural 

 History) as evidence of this notable find. Apropos of this divergence 

 from the normal nesting site, Col. Willoughby Verner told me 

 recentl)' that he had known of three instances in Spain of the 

 Egyptian Vulture nesting in trees. 



Near here we saw our first Booted Eagle, Hieracetus pennatiis, 

 with white underparts, the phase that seems to be the general 

 one in Spain, and we watched it make a magnificent vertical swoop, 

 presumably at a rabbit. Here also I observed two small uni-coloured 

 falcons flying about in a bunch of pines. They had the size and 

 appearance of Falco eleonorcB, but it was impossible to ihoot or 

 identify them correctly as we had no weapon with us but a pistol. 

 This species appears to have been observed in Spain by Lord Lilford 

 and by Howard Saunders.* We also saw a solitary Griffon Vulture, 

 Gyps fulvus fulvus, one or two of which often wander over from the 

 distant Sierras, several White Storks and a party of twenty or, 

 more Buff-backed Herons. Returning along a sandy track McNeile 

 found a nest of the Southern Grey Shrike, Lanius excuhitor meridio- 

 nalis, in the lateral branches of a thick wild olive tree, which contained 

 two eggs. Coming back over the marshes we also observed a 



* Arevalo states, p. 75. that Castellarnau says that he has seen some 

 examples of this species in the month of October in the meadows of the little 

 villages in the Sierra de Guadarrama, that Vayreda notes it as rare and " de 

 paso" (Spanish = passing by) in Gerona. He states further that "some 

 English authors " have stated that it has nested for about a century on the 

 rocks of Penon at Gibraltar. — Editor's Note. 



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