466 ORNITHOLOGICAL SKETCHES 
projections about a hundred yards off, and there quietly awaited 
the moment of our departure, when they doubtless continued 
their meal. 
In the wooded spurs of the Sierra Guadarrama I had also 
an opportunity of observing the Griffon Vulture in an 
interesting locality. Crossing the aforesaid barren ridge 
above the Escorial, one reaches a wooded mountain district, 
the character of which quite recalls certain portions of the 
Bohemian or Saxon Switzerland, and in no other part of Spain 
have I found a mountain formation like that of these ranges, 
which rise gradually from the plain of Avila towards the 
desolate loftier regions of the Sierra Guadarrama, and are 
covered with fir-woods and decked with isolated little patches 
of cultivation. Wooded hills of this sort cannot be a perma- 
nent resort of the Griffon Vultures, but in order to reach 
from their true dwelling-places the plains which furnish them 
with their booty they must cross them; and so even there 
one may in the afternoon see many vultures flying one after 
another at a great height, and all pursuing the same direction 
towards the high mountains. 
Among the wooded summits of these charmingly beautiful 
outlying hills rises a sharp rocky pinnacle with bare pre- 
cipitous sides, and at its base there is a steep slope of loose 
stones, some large masses of rock, and a few old firs. It 
is known as the Pefia Blanca, and is a most remarkable 
point, which serves as a rendezvous and resting-place for 
many of the large birds of prey. In two adjacent clefts of 
the rock a pair of Egyptian Vultures and a couple of Pere- 
grines were also dwelling, while in an old fir-tree close under 
it I found the nest of a Pygmy Eagle, while the cliffs were 
quite whitewashed with the droppings of the vultures. 
On one face of this rock the herdsmen showed me a niche 
which is said to have served as the roosting-place of two 
Bearded Vultures for years; and on another were the clefts, 
