*252 WILD SPAIN. 



was being discussed. We were away by sunrise, at which 

 hour the singular, resonant song of the Partridge-cocks 

 (Eed-legs) was ubiquitous : from ahnost every ilex-grove 

 came the half-choking rhnkar, cJiuhar, while the love-sick 

 liird bowed and gesticulated, standing nearly bolt upright 

 with half-expanded wings on some dead branch or shat- 

 tered trunk, sometimes on the crest of a sand-ridge.* 



Within a quarter-mile of the lodge we found a Kite's nest, 

 shot the old bird, replaced her two eggs with two hen's 

 eggs and a steel-trap : and had hardly ridden two hundred 

 yards ere the male swept down and was caught. Seldom 

 are so fine a pair of birds secured so easily ! During 

 this day we found no fewer than six nests, for the Kite, as 

 before stated, prefers the open country to the forest, and 

 almost each clump of cork-trees was tenanted by a pair. 

 These cork-groves are also occupied by many other species 

 — by birds of plumage whose resplendent hues appear 

 almost tropical — such as Golden Oriole, Roller, Bee-eater, 

 Hoopoes, Woodpeckers, Azure-winged Magpie, and others 

 hardly less brilliant. Amid the ilex-groves the Golden 

 Oriole hangs suspended, hovering like a Kestrel in mid- 

 air, his rich orange lustre justifying the Spanish name 

 — oropcndola : the lioller, clad in chestnut and azure, 

 and rich parti-coloured Hoopoes and Pied Woodpeckers 

 flit among the foliage. Presently a harsh "chack, chack" 

 announces the arrival of a wandering party of Bee- eaters, 

 most brilliant of European birds ; and a score of these 

 sweep round, alternately rising and poising, or soaring 

 on clean-cut, hawk-like wing, then darting downwards 

 amidst the masses of flowering heaths in pursuit of indus- 

 trious aphithe. The Bee-eaters pass on: but there is no 

 truce for the insect-world, for other deadly enemies, the 

 Woodchat and Southern Grey Shrike, sit by on every bush, 

 intent on impaling heavy-flying bee or beetle. From the 



* Partridges coimnence this love-song as early as February. In 

 March it is continuous at sunrise and towards dusk. Here is an 

 attempt to syllable it : — 



" Chuck, chuck . . . churroiik, churrouk, 

 Chukar, chukkr, chouk ! " 



