56 The Oologists' Record September t, 192 i. 



Near Benamahoma we visited the cliff, where the set of two Eagle 

 Owl's eggs had been taken. The nest was in a shallow light cave 

 at the very top of the cliff, merely shaded from the sun by two 

 or three small trees growing out of the rocks. It was easy to 

 descend into the cave by the help of one of these trees. The cave 

 still contained a few feathers of the Eagle Owl. A few yards away, 

 and about 10 feet from the top of the cliff was the nest platform 

 of a Griffon Vulture from which the egg, highly incubated, had 

 been taken a few days before. It was composed of a layer of dry 

 grass and small odd sticks, &c., with plenty of the droppings of the 

 old birds, which in the course of years so whiten the edge of the 

 nest-ledge that it can be plainly discerned from below. Another 

 Griffon's nest lower down contained a chick in white down about a 

 week old. This was a small griff onry, comprising only four or 

 five pairs. I noticed that in flight the Griffon Vulture uses its 

 legs in descending, holding them close together stretched straight 

 downwards, perhaps to assist in steering. When actually alighting 

 they are placed more forward and separated. One bird scratched 

 its neck with one leg during flight, an easy performance, perhaps, 

 considering the way it soars steadily on its mighty outstretched 

 wings, which are very seldom flapped in flight. I noticed, too. that 

 the tips of the quills are widely separated in flight. I only once 

 observed a bird make any attempt at attacking when its nest was 

 robbed. This was on the 14th, when my climber went up to a 

 higher nest which contained a young bird, I, meanwhile, being 

 perched in the middle of the cliff where we had just taken the 

 fresh egg previously mentioned. When the climber was at the 

 nest the old bird flew at him repeatedly, uttering a long harsh 

 scream quite different from the hoarse croak uttered not infrequently 

 in flight. The climber considered it somewhat menacing for he 

 commenced hurling all the loose stones he could find at the bird, 

 to my discomfort, for I was almost directly beneath him and two or 

 three hundred feet lower. I therefore fired my pistol at it, when 

 it wheeled near me, and that made it sheer off for a while. Witherby's 

 statement (" Practical Handbook," p. 184), on the authority of 

 Jourdain, that this Vulture is " absolutely silent on the wing " is, in 

 my experience, inaccurate. 



There are, I found, in all, seven griffonries, large and small, 

 within 4 or 5 miles of Grazalema, the largest accommodating 

 about 25 pairs and the smallest 2 or 3 pairs. 



