470 ORNITHOLOGICAL SKETCHES 



with vultures. Every second fresh arrivals came plunging 

 down from above, and I quickly began to number them. In a 

 few minutes there were seventy-five Griffon Vultures and one 

 Egyptian Vulture on that one spot; but almost before I had 

 finished counting, the birds left the place one after another 

 and flapped heavily about. Of the sheep there remained 

 nothing but some spots of blood, a little wool, and its bones, 

 which lay scattered in all directions. 



This feast of the vultures was a singular and interesting 

 scene, and the cracking of bones, the hoarse croaks of the 

 birds, the rushing sound of their wings, the snapping of their 

 great beaks, and the way in which they pulled and hauled at 

 the entrails and extremities of the sheep, and quarrelled and 

 fought, created a peculiar and deafening noise. I fired several 

 times at them as they were flying round about, but they were 

 too far off, and only a few feathers fell; yet even these shots 

 did not disturb them, and most of them merely flapped from 

 one stone to another. 



For several minutes a young Bearded Vulture, still in the 

 dark plumage, was soaring high above the Griffon Vultures, 

 and a " Stein " Eagle, allured by the noise of the vultures' 

 feast, also came to the place and settled on the dead branch 

 of a stunted tree which grew out of the rocks. I finished it off 

 with my rifle, and afterwards the vultures gradually flew 

 away in various directions. On my way back I saw some 

 of these great birds low down, and even observed many of 

 them among the high cliffs of the main valley near the little 

 town of Riva de Sella on the sea-coast. 



Throughout Spain the Griffon Vulture is more or less a 

 perfectly common bird, I might even say a characteristic 

 creature of this wild, stony, thinly populated country. The 

 observer will find no difficulty in seeing it at any hour of the 

 day, though generally at a great distance. At the nest, how- 

 ever, it is not easy to study it closely, for its dwelling is 



