FROM SPAIN. 467 



crannies, and ledges which the Griffon Vultures always use 

 as halfway halting-places on their way to the true Sierra 

 Guadarrama. A Spaniard who accompanied me pointed out 

 a spot marked with droppings as the nesting-place of one of 

 these birds ; but this, as I had an opportunity of assuring 

 myself, was a mistake, and the projecting ledge was merely 

 one of their most favourite resorts. 



During the afternoon I crouched under the cliff, well 

 concealed by a large stone ; and presently a Griffon Vulture 

 came flapping along, pitched on the rock, and settling itself 

 comfortably was beginning to preen its feathers, when I 

 frightened it off by firing an unsuccessful shot at it with ball. 

 In a few minutes a second appeared at the same spot, and I 

 tried shot; but the distance was too great, and the hard-hit 

 bird, leaving the place with its feet hanging, quickly disap- 

 peared behind the nearest hill. It was joined by a comrade, 

 who came back and circled cautiously round the place. No 

 long interval elapsed before another vulture flew straight to 

 the rock, and had hardly settled itself to its satisfaction in a 

 broad niche, when 1 sent a bullet through the middle of its 

 breast, and it fell rattling down over the stones. It proved 

 to be a very pale-coloured and extremely old specimen. 



I now left the place to turn my attention to some nests; 

 but as soon as I got a few hundred paces from the rock, 

 I saw two more vultures alight upon it, and in the far 

 distance I observed many others, all coming up in the same 

 direction. 



In the striking primary rock formations of the Sierra de 

 Gredos I had also repeated opportunities of observing Griffon 

 Vultures among other surroundings, namely, high up among 

 the snow-fields. During a long and difficult ride from the 

 village of Bohoyo, when we followed the course of a stream 

 through a splendid valley and finally reached the ridge of the 

 mountain, I constantly saw vultures soaring aloft or sitting 



