J 



68 



Unexplored Spain 



scanty structure ; though, where necessary, a broad j)hitforni of 

 sticks was provided — as sketched. The poults (only one in each 

 nest) were now as big as guinea-fowls, with brown feathers 

 sprouting through the wliite down. Tliese eyries, all)eit slightly 

 malodorous, are always strictly cleanly, sin('e vultures feed their 

 young by disgorging half-digested food from their own crops, 

 and w^e watched this not-pleasing operation being performed within 



some eighty yards' distance ; 

 hence there is no carrion or 

 ])utrefvino; matter Ivino- 

 about, as is the case with 

 the neophron and lammer- 

 geyer. 



These eyries were situate 

 on three great outstanding; 

 stacks of rock, and during 

 the scramble we came face 

 to face with a pair of eagle- 

 owds solemnly dreamij]g aw^ay 

 the hours in the recesses of 

 a cavern, though no sign of 

 a nest was discovered. The 

 caves were shared by crag- 

 martins, whose swallow -like 

 nests were fixed under the 

 roof, usually just beyond 

 reach. Their eggs are white, 

 flecked with grey. On 

 ^lay 1 8 we obtained here a 

 nest of the rock-thrush with five beautiful greenish-blue eggs. 

 It w^as built in a cranny of the crags. 



This year (1910) found us once more in the Puertade Palomas, 

 the date April 8. On rounding the Sierra cle las Cabras, as L. 

 was already far up the hillside, I rode forward intending to ascend 

 at the north end and w^ork back, thus meeting in centre. A suc- 

 cession of mischances, however, upset that plan. A small clump of 

 ilex clung to the steep above the point whereat I had left the 

 horses, and in traversing this, I walked right into a calf concealed 

 beneath a lentiscus. Knowino- that this mio-ht involve trouble 

 should its half-wild mother be within hearing, I gently retreated. 



GRIFFON VULTURE FEEDING YOUNG- 

 PUERTA I)E PALOMAS, Ai'KIL 10, 1910. 



