FROM SPAIN. 469 



ance would never have led me to imagine that it could hold 

 so many vultures; but on the following morning I passed 

 through some high valleys and saw green Alps with Alpine 

 huts just like those of our own highlands. That very night a 

 Bear had eaten a cow close to a hut, and I observed at a 

 distance numbers of Griffon Vultures, with a few Egyptian 

 Vultures and Ravens, flying round the remnants left by the 

 animal after his feast. Concealing myself behind a fence, I 

 watched vulture after vulture leave the place and fly across a 

 deep valley to the opposite mountain-ridge, where numbers of 

 them were cruising about a high cliff, in which they probably 

 had their nests; many, however, sailed away down the valley. 

 As I wanted to see how soon I could again collect them at 

 a carcass, I purchased a sheep at the nearest hut, and led it 

 to a rocky elevation visible from afar, and situated on a little 

 meadow surrounded by great stones. There I killed it, 

 and concealed myself in a shelter rapidly constructed with 

 boughs and stones. In a few minutes an Egyptian Vulture 

 appeared and at once began its meal ; a little later 1 heard 

 the rush of heavy wings, and saw a huge shadow gliding 

 up over the ground, immediately followed by an old finely 

 coloured Griffon Vulture, which settled on a large stone 

 near my ambush. I gave it a ball through the breast, and 

 as I was proceeding to drag my booty into the hiding- 

 place, a second flew past a few yards above me and looked 

 at its slain comrade. This bird I also brought down with 

 the shot barrel of my combination gun. A torrent of rain 

 then fell like a waterspout, and obliged me to return with 

 my spoils to the nearest hut, which was within five minutes' 

 walk. Hardly had the sky cleared again and the sun burst 

 through the clouds, when I observed a vulture circling over 

 the carcass; so I hurried back to the place under cover of the 

 stones, and on reaching it looked out from behind them, 

 and saw that the sheep and its surroundings were covered 



