Introductory 



burn, iu winter shelterless from biting blasts off snow-clad sierras, 

 present precisely that landscape of desperate desolation that 

 always results from a maximum of sunshine combined with a 

 minimum of rainfall. A desiccated downland, khaki-colour or 

 calcareous by turn, but bare (save for a few weeks in spring) of 

 green thing, naked of l)ush or shrub, innocent even of grass. 



Types of Spanish Bikd-Life 



LAMMERGEYER {Gypaetvs barhatus) 



Whose home is in the wildest sierras — a weird dragon-like bird-form ; expanse, 9 feet. 

 [Formerly repute<l to carrj' off huhiex to its eyrie.] 



Not a tree grows so far as eye can reach, not a watercourse but 

 is stone-dry and leaves the impress that it has been so since time 

 began. Oh, it is an unlovely landscape, that central plateau. 

 'Twere ungrateful, nevertheless (and unjust too), to forget that 

 here we are journeying in a glory of atmosphere, brilliant in 

 aggressive radiance that annihilates distance and revels in space. 

 Though patches of vine-growth be lost in the monotony of tawny 

 expanse, mud-built hamlet and village church indistinguishable 



