FROM SPAIN. 485 
down at the feasting vultures. As soon as I saw that it 
would come no lower, but that it was sweeping round in 
widening circuits, I fired. Some feathers fell, and it plunged 
down the valley severely wounded ; but not being able to see 
the exact place where it had fallen, all our searching was 
unfortunately unsuccessful. That was the only Bearded 
Vulture I met with in the north of Spain. 
I also saw a splendid old bird, with bright yellow plumage, 
on the Sierra de Gredos, in the interior of the country. It 
glided away over a snow-field, took a wide sweep along the 
ridge of the mountain, and after passing close to the spot 
where I was lying in wait for ibex, it finally vanished down 
a rugged valley. The natives of these mountains knew the 
Bearded Vultures well, but could give me no information 
about their nests. 
In the spurs of the Sierra Guadarrama I was shown a 
resting-place of this bird on the rock of Pena Blanca, situated 
in the midst of those low wooded hills. The niche in the 
rock was certainly plastered with droppings, but I thought it 
looked more like a favourite resort of the Griffon Vultures, 
and that the mountains were too unimportant for the Bearded 
Vulture. When climbing about the rocks, however, late in 
the afternoon I observed two of these birds playfully circling 
aloft—one being very large, old, and with bright yellow under- 
parts; the other smaller and rather darker. I gazed for a 
long time at the splendid creatures as they tumbled about 
and swept round the wooded hill-tops, behind one of which 
they at last disappeared. 
Those were the last Bearded Vultures that I observed in 
Spain; but one of my attendants saw two others, which came 
within shot of him several times while he was waiting for me 
not far from an ambush on the ridge above the Hscorial, 
where I was watching for vultures. 
In Malaga I was fortunate enough to procure a live Bearded 
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