68 LORD LILFORD 



the species without slaughtering mon individu. 

 I always prefer knowing where to find and 

 observe particular birds to killing them, though 

 I always like to have one specimen. Tunis is a 

 magnificent country, where I would willingly 

 have passed a year, but I had a rampant friend 

 waiting for me at Malta, et que voulez-vous ? 



' I do not think that Aquila pennata (Booted 

 Eagle) is common anywhere north of Spain. 

 There is a very good ornithologist at Genoa, who 

 has a splendid collection of European Eaptores, 

 and he tells me that he has only heard of it 

 once in those parts : it has not yet been dis- 

 covered in Sardinia. The ibex does not exist 

 in Sardinia ; moufflon in abundance and some 

 wild goats, but the only place in which I know 

 of ibex in Europe out of Spain is a glacier not 

 very far from this place, whither I went the 

 other day with the idea of getting a shot. How- 

 ever, on arriving at the village at the foot of the 

 mountain I found that the king, who is a mighty 

 Nimrod, had reserved all the ibex for his own 

 gunnery, and had got a lot of gardes de chasse 

 all over the place. I offered the chasseur fifty 

 francs to take me up without a gun to get a look 



