394 The Griffon Vulture 
writer styles the nest a great and untidy platform another 
describes it as a neatly finished and lined bowl. Having had 
the opportunity of visiting many scores of nests I have come to 
the conclusion that individual Griffons vary in their ideas of 
comfort and cleanliness almost as much as do human beings, and 
that in consequence both of the foregoing descriptions are accurate 
in certain cases. 
Some may ask why I thus visit so many nests of the same 
species of bird. The reply is that although the Griffon usually lays 
one egg (I have never seen more than one egg in a nest, despite 
the tale that they sometimes lay two, which I doubt), normally 
pure white ; sometimes their eggs are marked with rufous spots 
and streaks. Such specimens are of course a joy to all who wish 
for a rare addition to their collections. Hence I never see a 
Griffon’s nest in a situation where it can be reached without 
undue risk or a sacrifice of valuable time but I pay it a visit, 
ever sanguine of being rewarded by the sight of a handsomely 
marked specimen. As a matter of fact | have only come across 
three eggs with any pretensions to markings in over thirty years, in 
spite of many scores I have seen. Possibly I have been unlucky, 
but my estimate is that on the average not more than one in 
forty are thus marked. Yet one day I had the good fortune to 
get two marked eggs out of eight nests visited. 
The typical Griffon’s nest is placed in a cavern, when a cavern 
is to be found, which, as I have said, partly explains their marked 
predilection for the sandstone cliffs of southern Spain rather than 
the limestone, which offer fewer suitable sites. Failing however a 
cavern or deep fissure, these birds will nest on an open ledge or on 
the big terraces which are found on some of the great cliffs. 
The nests have a foundation of big sticks, dried branches of 
trees and of heather, the platform varying from 2 ft. to 4 ft. in 
diameter. Some have a fairly neatly formed basin about 15 in. 
