464 ORNITHOLOGICAL SKETCHES 



splendid positions for their dwellings, and the train, as it rattles 

 through a long narrow rocky valley, is constantly sur/ounded 

 by these vultures. 



Opposite one of the small stations there rises a high and 

 perfectly perpendicular cliff, where every hole, cleft, and cranny 

 is occupied with nests, and among many pairs of Griffon 

 Vultures I found several couples of Egyptian Vultures and 

 one nest of the " Stein" Eagle. 



With the glass I watched the lively stir at the nests, where 

 the halfgrown young were sitting upright on the edges of 

 their abodes, and the old birds were majestically flying to and 

 fro, or perching on the protuberances of the rocks to digest their 

 meals. This interesting place might truly be called a vulture 

 colony. 



I found no Griffon Vultures in the immediate neighbour- 

 hood of Seville or on the " marismas " of the Guadalquiver, 

 for there the character of the whole district does not in the 

 least meet the requirements of these great birds. I saw them, 

 however, throughout Central Spain, especially in the stony 

 barren surroundings of Madrid. Along the Manzanares, 

 just outside the town, and over the royal preserves of the 

 Casa de Campo, I noticed many of them returning to the 

 Sierra Guadarrama from their hunting-excursions, in company 

 with Cinereous and Egyptian Vultures. 



Between Madrid and the high mountains there lies an 

 elevated plateau covered with miserable oakwoods, and there 

 I laid out a carcass as a bait for the vultures. Some of the 

 Cinereous Vultures which nest in these woods, and afterwards 

 a few Egyptian Vultures, Eagles, Black Kites, and Ravens, 

 came to the place, but only one Griffon Vulture dropped 

 down to the bait, although I saw numbers of them flying to 

 the mountains at a great height. 



I think 1 may safely assume that this species is far more 

 generally distributed over the entire country at other periods 



