42 On the Guadalquiver. 



it rose again and flew away, while the " tic-tic-tic " again 

 sounded from the tree. I crept forward and out flew 

 another eagle from a nest in the tree. The nest was 

 compactly made of stout twigs, and had for a lining a 

 number of acorn cups and a long clean backbone of a 

 snake, but there were no eggs. On visiting this nest again 

 some days afterwards it was still empty, and the snake's 

 skeleton had disappeared. 



The griffon vulture was not the only bird that came to 

 life again, so full of surprises to us was this strange country. 

 We were sitting one evening '* picking oakum," not from 

 inclination but from necessity, having run short of tow 

 wherewith to fill up our bird skins, when a kite, which had 

 been shot some hours before, and was just about to be 

 skinned, suddenly got up from the floor, and flew round 

 the room. Verily the ornithologist requires strong nerves. 



We made several expeditions amongst the sandhills 

 bordering on the sea. The markings on the surface of 

 these sandhills are well worth studying. Everywhere the 

 tracks of cows, horses, deer, and rabbits are to be seen. 

 Look a little closer at the sand, and you will find that its 

 whole surface is covered with smaller tracks, crossing and 

 re-crossing each other. You can decipher those of birds 

 of different kinds, lizards, large and small, as well as 

 tortoises, but there still remain to be accounted for a vast 

 number of intricate dots, lines, marks, and trails, which 

 may have been made by mammals, birds, reptiles, or even 

 insects. Here and there amongst the sandhills is a pine 

 wood, which still holds out against the all-embracing 

 sand. In these stunted pine trees we found kites' nests, 

 as well as those of ravens,* not more than twenty feet 



* Corvus cor ax. 



