Sierra Morena 



163 



ray a, 100 yards away, in two enormous bounds. There was just 

 time to see glorious antlers with many-forked tops ere he dived 

 from sight, plunging into ten-foot scrub. 



I had fired Ijoth barrels, necessarily with but an apology for 

 an aim and the second purely " at a venture." Three minutes 

 later resounded the tinkling cence7'7'os (bells) of the podencos, and 

 when two of these hounds had followed the spoor ahead, all mute, 

 then I knew that both bullets had spent their force on useless 

 scrub. 



Fortune favoured. Half an hour afterwards, a second stag- 

 followed. This time a gentle rustle in the bush, and one clink of 



rr 



AZURE-WINGED MAGPIE 



a hoof on rock had caught my faulty ear. Then coroneted 

 antlers showed up from the depths below, and so soon as the 

 great brown body came in view, a bullet on the shoulder at short 

 range dropped him dead. This was an average stag, weighing 

 255 lbs. clean, but although "royal," carried a smaller head 

 than that first seen. Later, two other big stags descended 

 together into the unseen depths on my front, but whither they 

 subsequently took their course — quien sabe f I saw them no 

 more. 



The only other animal that crossed my line during the day 

 was a mongoose, but objects of interest never lacked. Close 

 behind my post, a huge stick-built nest filled a small ilex. This 

 was the ancestral abode of a pair of griffons, and its owners were 

 already busy renewing their home, though my presence sadly 

 disconcerted them. Hereabouts these vultures breed regularly on 

 trees, a most unusual habit, due presumably to the lack of 



