Letters, Announcements, i^c. 229 



fixing iny abode iu a country where there was a chance of 

 finding something new to relate iu the ornithological way. 

 However, at the command of the task-master, I must make 

 my bricks without straw, or, at all events, make my scanty 

 supply of straw go as far as possible. 



Every visitor to Biarritz knows the pretty — and dull — little 

 town St. Jean-de-Luz, ten miles to the southwards, situated on 

 a crescent-shaped bay, into which the Nivelle pours its waters. 

 To the south-east lie the ribs thrown out from the spinal 

 column of the Pyrenees. The nearest of these is La Rhune, 

 close upon 3000 feet in height, the mountain of the district ; 

 while to the south and west stretch the loftier ridges of 

 Spain, the most conspicuous being the jagged Haya-curi, or 

 Trois Couronnes. The lower hills are clothed with closely 

 pollarded woods, consisting principally of oak and beech, with 

 some chestnut ; and there is a considerable extent of moor- 

 land golden with gorse. To judge from the number of houses 

 studded about, the country appears to be too thickly popu- 

 lated to be much adapted to birds of a retiring nature ; 

 nevertheless, for a civilized district, this Basque territory is 

 not deficient in birds, and some species may be observed every 

 day the mere sight of which would make an ornithologist's 

 heart throb in Britain. The Red Kite, soaring over the 

 town and steering its graceful course by alternate sideways 

 depressions of the forked tail, is a very familiar object ; the 

 Black Kite does not arrive until April ; but the loud mewing 

 cry of the Common Buzzard not unfrequeutly reaches the 

 ear, especially just now, when the breeding-season is com- 

 mencing. I have never been up the Rhune without seeing 

 the Bearded Vulture ; in fact, the last time there were three 

 (two young birds of the previous year and one adult) circling 

 over the valley on the south-eastern side, in the crags of 

 which there is probably a nest by this time, as there is cer- 

 tainly in Trois Couronnes. The more I see of the Bearded 

 Vulture, so called, the more I feel inclined to doul)t that he 

 is really closely related to the Vultures ; and I rather prefer 

 to consider him a degenerate poor relation of the Falcons 

 proper. This may be heresy for all I know : I have no books 



SER. V. VOL. I. R 



