FROM SPAIN. 473 



III. 



THE CINEREOUS VULTURE 



( Vultur cinereus). 



THE Great Cinereous Vulture is in Spain one of the rarer 

 birds, and inhabits only a few districts of that country, for 

 it is the vulture of the great woods, and of these there are 

 not many in barren sunburnt Spain. I have myself only 

 met with it in two localities. In the extensive royal park of 

 the Pardo, which stretches from the Sierra Guadarrama 

 almost up to the gates of Madrid, it nests among the ever- 

 green oaks; and when I laid out a carcass there many of these 

 gigantic birds appeared, five or six of which settled on the 

 nearest oaks and carefully examined the surroundings. 



Of all the places that I visited in Spain, the Pardo is the only 

 one where the Cinereous is commoner than the Griffon Vul- 

 ture, for in all the other parts of the country the former is 

 rare, the latter very abundant. In the fir-woods on the spurs 

 of the Sierra Guadarrama it is said to nest every year. This 

 information I received from a perfectly trustworthy source, 

 but I never saw it there myself, much less its nest. 



In the Sierra de Gredos I saw one sitting on a rock at no 

 great distance, but it was the only bird of the kind that I 

 observed in those mountains. 



During my many excursions in Southern Spain, which 

 lasted all day long, I never came across a Cinereous Vulture. 

 According to Lord Lilford, however, there are many nests of 

 it in the large woods between Seville and Cordova. This I 

 can say nothing about, never having visited that district. 



