FROM SPAIN. 459 



Vulture had already plunged into its hole. Again I saw the 

 long tail protruding, and again it was only after repeated 

 shouts that it turned itself round. The first shot brought it 

 down the cliff, but, extending its wings, it recovered its 

 balance and flew towards the valley in an opposite direction 

 to that taken by the first bird. The second shot broke one of 

 its legs, which hung down, and over an olive-yard, a few 

 hundred paces from us, its wings suddenly drooped and it 

 fell to the ground like a stone. 



Hurrying down the slope I found my splendid booty 

 already surrounded by the herdsmen, and, laden with the two 

 Bearded Vultures, we now returned to the hacienda. I was 

 thus lucky enough to bag a paired couple of these rare, beau- 

 tiful, and very interesting birds of prey in less than half an 

 hour. 



The same afternoon we again clambered to the same place, 

 and sent some hunters and herdsmen up the cliff to take the 

 nest. A peasant from the neighbourhood of the hacienda, who 

 climbs for nests every year, undertook to descend the dangerous 

 and very difficult cliff by a rope-ladder and to bring down 

 the young bird in a basket. We waited under the rock 

 to have the materials of the nest thrown out to us, and a bit 

 of goatskin, some feathers, old bones, and mouldy remains of 

 plants came down in this fashion. The nest of this bird is 

 very carelessly constructed, or, to speak more accurately, 

 there is no regular nest, and the young one sits on the bare 

 rock simply surrounded by the feathers and remnants of food 

 which happen to collect in the course of its existence. 



The plucky Spaniard had a great deal of difficulty in taking 

 out the young Bearded Vulture, for the hole went back a long 

 way and the bird retreated into it; but he at last managed to 

 get it into the basket, and it passed from its rocky castle 

 into our possession. It was already quite large and strong, 

 and its plumage was in the transition-stage between down 



