302 



WILD SPAIN. 



hay innclios, and the gesture that accompanied it, con- 

 veyed the impression that only a few leagues across the 

 mountains, there were swarms of lions : but on being 

 questioned more precisely as to the locality, he replied — 

 " In the United States ! " Possibly in that lad's mind, the 

 Esfados Unidos commenced somewhere just beyond the 

 limit of his view — at any rate, further zoological discussion 

 was suspended. 



Many of the crags were tenanted by vultures, but these 

 we expressly avoided, and directed the search to spots where 

 these birds were not. For some days we sought in vain : 

 at last we espied an eyrie which appeared to give promise of 

 success. This was a wide crevice in the face of a precipice, 

 which from the copious whitewash l:»elow, was evidently 

 occupied. Some broken crags on the left seemed to afford 

 a chance of climbing within shot of the eyrie ; and having 

 reached the spot. Bias fired a shot below, when there fol- 

 lowed a scrambling noise within the cave, and out swept — 

 not the coveted Gypaetus, but a huge bare-necked griffon. 

 I appeased my disappointment with both barrels, and the 

 B.B. taking effect on the head, the vulture collapsed and 

 fell down — down — with a mighty thud to the slopes below. 



We could find nothing but vultures here : every crag was 

 possessed by them, and we examined several of their 

 abodes. They were already beginning to build : the rem- 

 nants of last year's structures being now (January 22nd) 

 supplemented by fresh live branches of oak and olive, and 

 big claws-full of grass torn up by the roots. 



'Twere a long tale to tell of fruitless efforts : we never so 

 much as saw our coveted prize hereabouts, and at length 

 we left the kindly farmer's house. The pretty Anita who 

 had waited on us, and who, though she never sat down in 

 her master's presence, joined freely in the conversation, 

 had, we observed, donned quite an extra stratum of jKrudre 

 d'amonr, or some such compound, upon her fair brown 

 cheeks to bid adios to the mad Ingles ; but neither she nor 

 hearty Francisco would hear of accepting any return for 

 all the trouble of our visit. \Ye had an idea, in the former 

 case, that coquetry might have had something to do with 



