Unexplored Spain 



354 



rock-stack, that stood forth in a terril)ly steep scree. From a 

 cavern in the face of this (prettily overhung by a clump of red- 

 berried mistletoe) flew the male eagle. From below, the eyrie 

 was accessible to within a dozen feet ; but that interval proved 

 impassable. In the evening we returned with the rope, and 

 having made this fast above, L. was about to ascend from below, 

 when the man left in charge at the top (probably misunderstand- 

 ing his instructions) let all go, and down came the rope clattering 

 at our feet ! It was too late to rectify the blunder that night, 

 and a month elapsed ere we would revisit the spot. Then this 

 curious result ensued. Tlie eagles, we found, had so bitterly 



GOLDEN EAGLE HUNTING 



(1) The " stoop "—quite vertical. 



(2) "Got him." 



resented the indignity of a rope having been (even momentarily) 

 stretched athwart their portals that they had abandoned their 

 stronghold, leaving tw^o handsome eggs, partly incubated. Their 

 eyrie was eight feet deep, its entrance partly overgrown with ivy 

 and (as above mentioned) overhung by red-berried mistletoe 

 growing on a wild-cherry — the nest built of sticks, lined with 

 esparto, and adorned with green ivy-leaves and twigs of pinsdpo. 

 The golden eagle is still common, ornamenting with majestic 

 flight every sierra in Spain. For eagles are notoriously difficult 

 to kill, and, when killed, cannot be eaten ; so the goat-herd, 

 with characteristic apathy and Arab fatalism, sufters the ravages 

 on his kids and contents himself with an oath. Only once have 

 we found a nest in a tree ; it was a giant oak, impending a 



