Choughs and Alpine Accentors 305 
Some of the summits of the Serrania de Ronda present an 
almost unique scene of desolation. Countless ages of climatic 
influences have so denuded the surface of all soil that there are at 
places many square miles where the surface is of rock and rock 
alone. 
In addition, the action of rain and snow has enlarged the joints 
in the rock surface, in some cases to inches and in others to several 
feet in width, whereby the general surface is divided and sub- 
divided into innumerable detached masses separated by vertically- 
sided ravines. At the foot of these a certain amount of soil has 
been formed, and here fine grasses as well as flowers are to be 
seen. Now and again a particularly insistent wild olive finds sus- 
tenance at the bottom of one of these fissures and its upper branches 
appear above the general waste of broken-up rock. 
Save for a passing Eagle overhead, this region has hardly any 
bird-life. Rarely is the silence broken by the cheery call of the 
Chough (Pyrrhocorav graculus). Vhese birds, both in their cry 
and sociable habits, very much resemble our Jackdaws. They nest 
in small colonies, usually in the most inaccessible places, an especially 
favourite one being a cavern or shelf of rock below some big over- 
hanging crag. One of the few species met with in these stony 
wastes is the Alpine Accentor (Accentor collaris), They are ex- 
tremely tame and usually appear to be so engrossed in their search 
for food about the small grassy patches amid the rocks as to pay 
but little attention to the passer-by. Another species haunting the 
higher sierra during the nesting season is the Rock Bunting 
(Emberiza cia), a bird which is assuredly more stupidly tame than 
the Corn Bunting and will often continue to hop about the surface 
of some rock and feed unconcernedly within a few yards of any- 
body who may pause to watch its movements. 
Peregrine Falcons (falco peregrinus) are to be met with at 
intervals. I once found three eggs of this species laid in the disused 
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