Sketches of Spanish Bird- Life 393 



ir. An Isolated Cuag in Andalucia 



Within an easy half-day's ride from X. lie the cliffs of Cliipipi, 

 rising in crenellated tiers from the winding river at their base. It 

 is a lovely May morning. Doves in dozens dash away as we ride 

 through groves of white poplars, and the soft air is filled with 

 their murmurous chorus ; the bush-clad banks are vocal with the 

 song of orioles and nightin- 

 gales, cuckoos, and a score 

 of w^arblers — Cetti's and 

 Orphean, Sardinian, poly- 

 glotta, Bonelli's. The hand- 

 some rufous warbler, thouscli 

 not much of a songster, 

 is everywhere conspicuous, 

 flirting a boldly-barred, fan- 

 shaped, tail that catches one's 

 eye. There are woodchats, 

 serins, hoopoes; azure -blue 

 rollers squawk, and brilliant 

 bee-eaters poise and chatter 

 overhead — their nest-bur- 

 rows perforate the river-bank 

 like a sand-martins ' colony. 

 On willow -clad eyots nest 

 lesser ring - dotterels and 



otters bask ; while in the shaded depths beneath the frijiging 

 osiers lurk barbel intent to dash at belated grasshopper or cricket. 



In a thick lentiscus is the nest of a great grey shrike, and 

 while we watch, its owner flies up carrying a lizard in her beak. 

 Half an hour later we see a second shrike, with falcon-like dash, 

 capture another lizard basking in a sunny cranny among the rocks 

 — no mean performance that. There are snakes here also ; one we 

 killed, a coluber, on March 31, was 5|- feet long and contained 

 two rabbits swallowed whole and head first — one partly digested. 

 Another snake, quite small, struck us as being something 

 new ; him we bottled in spirit and despatched to the British 

 Museum. Presently came the reply, thanking us for a " Lizard, 

 BLanus cmereus." Lizard '{ Well, we learnt a lesson. There 

 are limbless lizards, and this was one — the subterranean amphis- 



SAVrS WARBLER {Sijlvia savii) 



■;])riiig-niigraiit, coninion liiit very locaL 

 Has eggs by mid-April. 



