460 Mr. A. Cliapmau — Winter Notes in Spain. 



sieiTas for an eyry of the Bearded Vulture, but, though we 

 fouud plenty of nesting-places of the Griffon, we could see 

 nothing of the more coveted prize. The Grifions were busy 

 building their nests with big living branches of oak and olive, 

 and claws full of grass torn up by the root. We watched 

 them gathering and carrying these materials from places 

 where charcoal-burners had been at work, and examined 

 several nests ; but none, of course, contained eggs so early as 

 January. 



Very few birds were observed on these barren mountain- 

 tops. On the knife-edged ridge of the Sierra de las Cabras, 

 where the Avhite rocks project in abrupt vertical strata, were 

 several of the Blue Rock Thrush, or " Solitario," and I was 

 rather surprised to see also the Black Chat [Saxicola leucura), 

 which I had imagined was purely a spring migrant. Among the 

 scrubby brushwood lower down the hill-side, the characteristic 

 species was the little Dartford Warbler, a bird of such in- 

 tensely tame and skulking habits, that it is impossible to get 

 a shot beyond three or four yards, which involves annihi- 

 lation. Another Warbler observed in the valleys of the 

 sierra was Sylvia melanocephala, but not commonly, it being 

 more numerous in the aloe- and cactus-hedges about Jerez 

 and the vine-country. After some hardish work and rough 

 mountain-riding, I was obliged to return to Jerez ; and 

 then, within half an hour of paying off my guides, while 

 riding through the chasm of the Boca de la Foz, we at length 

 descried a Bearded Vulture. The splendid bird continued 

 slowly sailing overhead for some minutes, and eventually ap- 

 peared to enter a high range of crags which I have before 

 mentioned in ' The Ibis.' I had made up my mind to spend 

 another night there (though we had neither food for man nor 

 beast), when the great bird reappeared, and after treating us to 

 another long and excellent view, Avinged its way in the di- 

 rection of the distant and loftier sierras towards Grazalema 

 and Ronda. I had never before enjoyed so good an oppor- 

 tunity of observing this fine bird in life, and was much sur- 

 prised with the general contour, which was less falcon-like, 

 and far more vulturine, than I had expected. The wings 



