FROM SPAIN. 471 



almost always situated in the most inaccessible precipices. 

 The only certain way to watch these birds near at hand and 

 to obtain them is by decoying them with a carcass; and in 

 Spain one can in suitable places get near them in this way at 

 any hour of the day, and without great precautions such as 

 are necessary with eagles. The hiding-place of the observer 

 does not even require to be particularly well concealed, for 

 gormandizing is the one idea and the sole occupation of these 

 vulgar birds. 



To attract vultures - quickly to a carcass, one must expose it 

 on some high position which is visible from afar, for they 

 follow each other, and in a few minutes the enticing bait is 

 detected and all of them plump down to the ground. The 

 one thing to avoid is the laying out of the lure in a deep 

 valley or any particularly low-lying spot, for the vultures like 

 to have an open look-out during their feast, and fear being 

 surprised in a moment of laziness and torpor after their gorge. 

 We once laid out six horses in a deep valley of the Sierra de 

 Honda; but though there were nests all about, and the vultures 

 made great sweeps round the place high in the air, they 

 nevertheless resisted their gluttonous instincts and forbore to 

 descend into the narrow ravine. 



When in Spain, I daily saw numbers of living Griffon 

 Vultures, and many either freshly killed, in skins, or set up 

 in collections, and it always struck me that the Spanish bird 

 was paler and altogether more beautiful in colour than that 

 of the East. The white of the head, neck, and ruff is purer 

 and more brilliant; the breast, belly, back, and shoulders are 

 yellower and of a clearer and finer tint. I simply make this 

 modest remark in the hope that some other traveller wander- 

 ing through Spain with an eye for the bird-world may 

 confirm it by further observations. 



