MEDITERRANEAN NOTES 147 



courier. Pan and a French bird skinner came with us. The 

 mosquitoes were in such swarms that we had to burn dried rosemary, 

 nearly suffocating ourselves, 



"Here we stayed till May ist, getting many, to us, new birds and 

 eggs, among them the eggs and young of the Spanish imperial eagle. 

 Some of these young eagles were brought to England and lived for 

 many years at Lilford, one surviving to 1893. 



"We returned to Seville, as I had to return on the 6th to 

 Gibraltar, where Lilford came on the 4th of June, staying there 

 with me till the i3th, when he left for England in the P. and O. 

 steamer Massilia. 



" 1872. In this year Lilford next visited Spain, when he and 

 Lady Lilford arrived in the Poonah at Gibraltar, stopping there 

 from February 6th till the lyth, when they left for Seville, where 

 I joined them from March agth till April 5th, when we went after 

 bustard. 



"On May ist, 1876, Lilford, Dr. O'Connor and myself left 

 Plymouth at 8 a.m. in the Zara, a three-hundred-ton schooner. With 

 a very favourable wind we reached Santander in sixty hours, a very 

 quick passage. 



" We remained in Santander harbour till May 23rd, daily going 

 out after birds, amongst others getting a nest of young ravens, one 

 of which became the celebrated 'Sankey.' On the 23rd we trained 

 to Torre la Vega, thence driving to Unquera, sleeping there. We 

 drove the next day to Potes, going through the Desfiladero, a grandly 

 picturesque pass between Panes and Poles. We stayed in a posada 

 at the latter place until June i3th, having got a good many birds, 

 including great black and middle-spotted woodpeckers, seeing some 

 capercaillie. 



"From June ist to 7th we had various, and alas! unsuccessful 

 beats for bears, we saw their tracks, but never got a shot; however, 

 the scenery was magnificent and the country interesting, though so 

 excessively steep and broken that you couldn't have found a spot 

 level enough for a cricket pitch. 



" On June i3th we drove to Comillas on the coast, returning to 

 Santander through Santillana, of Gil Bias fame, and Torre la Vega. 

 We remained in Santander harbour on board the Zara till the 2 ist, 



