458 Mr. A. Chapman — Winter Notes in Spain. 



they had known of their nesting occasionally. Casual ob- 

 servation is not, of course, of much value upon fine points, 

 but I give their opinion for what it may be worth. 



In the "campina^^ surrounding the city of Jerez were many 

 interesting birds. Bustards, both the great "Abutarda^' 

 and the little " Sison/'' as usual, were in plenty on the open 

 corn-lands. These great brown expanses of rolling country, 

 at this season, look hungry and barren in the extreme, and 

 in the entire absence of covert we did not attempt to molest 

 the Bustards. Storks {Ciconia alba) also frequent the " cam- 

 pina" in winter, and almost daily we observed flights of Cranes 

 passing over in gaggling skeins, or sedately stalking about 

 the broad stretches of growing corn and garbanzos. In the 

 marshy valleys of (3atalana and the Albaledejo, near Jerez, 

 the Snipe and Golden Plover were congregated in thousands ; 

 the Snipe actually sitting on the tops of the grass-tufts, 

 which alone showed above water. The only other birds ob- 

 served here Avere Little Bustards, Curlews, Pewits, and Marsh 

 Harriers. On the barren lands, sprinkled with dwarf iris, 

 stones, and the bleached skeletons of enormous thistles, were 

 swarms of G-oldfinches, Sky-, Calandra-, and Crested Larks, 

 Buntings, Stonechats, and Pipits, with Kestrels in attend- 

 ance. At a Coto in the neighbourhood of Jerez, I found 

 my old companion of 1883, Felipe, established as keeper. 

 His preserve, a range of low rolling hills of gravelly soil, 

 thickly overgrown with lentiscus and palmetto, produced a few 

 Partridges and great numbers of rabbits ; and Felipe assured 

 me that during November and December so many Eagles 

 came to feed on the latter, that he had killed over thirty the 

 previous year. By the middle of January they had mostly 

 retired to the Sierras to breed, and, he added, they were 

 nearly all Golden and Bonelli's Eagles ("Aguila perdicera," 

 he called the latter), with a few Short-toed Eagles [Circaetus 

 gallicus) early in the autumn. The latter species — preying 

 chiefly on snakes and large lizards, most of which hibernate — 

 appears to leave that part of Spain in winter ; but I noticed 

 a few of both reptiles during my visit, and some of their per- 

 secutors may also remain, though I saw none. Many of the 



