228 The Black Vulture 
the camera against my chest and pulled over the lever. In 
order to make sure of my task, I repeated the whole process 
thrice and was fortunate enough, in one case, to get not only a 
picture of the nest and egg in the foreground, but of the snowy 
summits of the Sierra de Guadarrama in the far distance beyond. 
It is unnecessary to expatiate upon the relief it was to regain the 
nest and once again to feel something firm to hold on to. I now 
descended, and we ate our luncheon at a point about 100 yards 
from the tree. During this time the old Vulture returned and 
proceeded to sit diligently on the empty nest as though her egg 
was still in it. On going towards the tree again, she rose up 
in the nest, and, extending her great black wings, sailed away. 
I obtained a photograph of her at this moment, the nest and bird 
standing up in good relief against the snow-clad slopes of the 
Sierra on the far distant side of the valley. 
Before leaving the district we came across several other nests 
only one of which was tenanted. This was at the summit of one 
of the loftiest pine trees I have ever seen, by rough measurement 
over 130 ft. in height. A sketch of this tree, taken on the spot, 
appears at the beginning of this chapter. For over 60 ft. there 
was no friendly stump over which to cast a line, and the first sound 
branches were well over 1oo ft. from the ground. 
We found this nest by watching a valley on the south-western 
slopes of the Guadarrama from a point high up on the hillside, 
considerably above the level of the nest. With my telescope we 
watched both old birds enter and leave it, but the distance was too 
great to make sure whether it contained an egg or not. 
From the movements of the birds it seemed as if they were 
still engaged in preparing the nest for laying, and, subsequently, 
we made our way to the foot of the tree. Owing to the great girth 
of the trunk of this pine, and the absence of branches, Doroteo 
at once declared the tree to be, without question, impossible, and 
