Serrania de Ronda ^^6^] 



and opal, and off he goes again to soar and sing once more. His 

 cousin, the hluc-thrush, has also a sweet song and a siniihir 

 hovering flight, ending in a "drop act"; but the ascent is more 

 vertical, while frequently he varies the descent and conies 

 fluttering down in tree-pipit or butterfly-like style. Even the 

 sober little ljlackch?.t now " shows off','' perclied on some ])oulder 

 with quivering wings and tail spread ^m-like over his back. 

 Both these two last, being resident, nest much earlier thnn the 

 migratory rock-thrush : the latter was building (in crevices of 

 the rocks) by mid-April, but hardly lays before May. 



These sierras being only 3000 to 4000 feet, one misses here 

 some of the alpine forms observed at higher altitudes. The 

 tawny pipit, for example, a sandy-hued bird with dark eye-stripe 

 and active w^agtail-llke gait, which was common on San Cristobal 

 at 4500 feet in April, never showed up here at all; nor did any 

 of the following species, all so characteristic of the hioher o-round : 

 Blackstarts, woodlarks, rock-buntings, cole- and longtail-tits, and 

 tree-creepers. The choughs, spotted woodpeckers, rock-thrushes, 

 crag-martins, and wood-pigeons, though observed, were here very 

 much scarcer. The lammei-geyer, too, rarely descends here, and 

 then only while in his smoke-black uniform of immaturity. 



The Puekta de Palomas 



In May 1883, while returning from Ubricjue, our horses fell 

 lame owing to loss of shoes, and for four days and nights we 

 were encamped in the pass known as the Puerta de Palomas. 

 There is a tiny ventorillo, or wayside wine-shop, at the foot of 

 the pass ; but nights are warm in JMay, and we preferred the 

 freedom of the open hill, where the strange growls made by 

 the griffons at dawn, together with the awakening carol of the 

 rock-thrush, formed our reveille each morning in that roofless 

 bedroom amidst the boulders. 



The opposite side of the pass is dominated by the picturesque 

 pile called the Picacho del Aljibe, a conical peak that towers iu 

 tiers of craos above the adioinino- sierras not unlike a 2:i<''antic 

 Arthur's Seat over the Salisbury Crags. Our own side was rather 

 a chaotic jumble of detached monoliths than cliffs proper, and by 

 clambering over these we reached in one morning sixteen vultures' 

 nests, the easiest of access we ever struck. They were mostly 

 very slight affairs, l)are rock often protruding through the 



