Delight of the Carboneros 345 
other suitable apparatus for use in what was really a rather 
awkward situation for camera work. Thus it came about that 
Country Life lost a unique opportunity of a photograph of an 
“ Eagle’s” egg which, had it appeared, I should have hoped to 
obtain permission to reproduce here. 
Some time after this episode, I met some carboneros (charcoal 
burners), old acquaintances of mine, who lived near the cliff and 
had seen me descend to the nest and photograph it. They had 
taken a keen interest in the transposition of the goose’s for the 
Eagle's egy and had, from time to time, looked over the cliff to 
see if a gosling had hatched out. When therefore “a long 
Englishman,” as they described the photographer, one day 
appeared on the scene and was at immense trouble to get the 
much-coveted egg “within his grasp” as he expressed it, they 
were enormously amused. The sense of humour which happily 
is so general among these poor fellows, who live cruelly hard 
lives with nothing to enliven them, found full scope in narrating 
the story. Nor do I escape altogether, for I am credited with 
risking my neck in order to put tame goose’s eggs into Eagles’ 
nests with the express purpose of fooling those who attempt to 
follow in my footsteps. The final verdict being that £7 Covone/ 
was admittedly /oco, mad, but that he at least knew what he 
wanted, whereas the luckless photographer was obviously /ov/o, 
imbecile, for he did not know what he was doing. I some- 
times wonder in whose collection this most remarkable “ prize” 
now finds a place! 
It will be noted that most of the nesting-places of Bonelli’s 
Eagle I have thus described at length were, comparatively speaking, 
very easy to reach. It is by no means always so, even in the most 
unfrequented and uninhabited districts. Thus, | know of a nest in 
the Serrania of Ronda close beneath a sloping terrace on the side of 
a very precipitous mountain. From this terrace there is a sheer 
