EXPEEIENCES WITH EAGLES AND VULTURES. 207 



mountain, marsh, or plain — breed only in the sierras. 

 We have observed them in every province from Guipiizcoa 

 to Galicia, and from Asturias to Mediterranean ; but 

 nowhere do they so greatly abound as in Andalucia, and 

 especially in that wild mountain-region which forms the 

 southernmost apex of Europe. Here they may fairly be 

 said to swarm, and in our many campaigns in these 

 sierras we have had abundant opportunities of observing 

 them " at home." Here the Griffon Vultures build their 

 broad flat nests on shelves and ledges of the crags, or in 

 caves in the face of sheer walls of rock, many of which exceed 

 2,000 feet in vertical altitude. The little town of Graza- 

 lema is perched on the verge of one of these stupendous 

 tajos ; from the window of the posada one can drop a 

 pebble to invisible depths, midway down which a colony of 

 Buitres have had their eyries from time immemorial. The 

 hill-villages of Arcos, El Bosque, Villa Martin, and Bornos, 

 all present similar instances — man seeking the highest 

 apex, the vultures its middle heights, beyond reach of 

 bullet from above or below. Eonda, too, has its tajo, but 

 we do not recollect seeing any vultures breeding actually 

 beneath the town. 



The Griffons commence repairing their nests as early as 

 January — we have watched them carrying claw-fulls of 

 grass and cut branches from places where charcoal-burners 

 had been lopping the trees, on -January 21st; a single large 

 white egg is laid in February, incubation lasts forty days, 

 and a naked, blue-skinned chick is hatched early in April. 

 The young vultures are of extremely slow growth, spend- 

 ing full three months in the nest. By mid-May they are 

 as big as Guinea-fowls : ungainly-looking creatures, all crop 

 and maw, with feathers beginning to show through the 

 thick white down. 



Once at that period (May) we were imprisoned in the 

 Sierra de Ubrique, both our animals having fallen lame 

 through loss of shoes, and it was with no small difficulty 

 we eventually extricated ourselves from the heart of those 

 rugged, pathless mountains. During four days and nights 

 we were encamped in the wild pass of the Puerta de 



