394 



Unexplored Spain 



baena ; our British bliiulworni (Anguis fragilis) is another, and 

 that also we did not know before. There are curious reptiles here 

 in Spain — the chameleon, for example. The lobe-footed gecko, 

 Salamanquesa in Spanish, haunts sunny rocks where insects 

 abound. But he carries war into the enemy's camp, invading 

 (not singly, but in force) the wild-bees' nests. A Spanish bee- 

 keeper gravel}^ assured us that the cold-blooded gecko does this 

 thing expressly to enjoy the sensation of being stung in twenty 

 places at once ! Here in a shady glade lie strewn broadcast the 

 wings of butterflies — examine very closely the bush above, and 

 presently an iris-less eye, expressionless as a grey pearl, will meet 



your own. That is a praying 

 mantis (or Santa Teresa in 

 Spanish), a practical insect but 

 no aesthete, since he devours 

 the ugly body and casts aside 

 the beauteous wings ! — see his 

 portrait at p. 87. Among 

 butterflies we counted here 

 the scarce swallowtail, lliais 

 polyxena (hatching out on 

 April 3), Vanessa polychloros, 

 a big fritillary with blood-red under-surface to its fore-wings 

 {Argynnis niaia, Cramer), Euchloebeh'a (March) and the curious 

 insect figured alongside, we know not what it is.^ 



For more than thirty years within our knowledge (and 

 probably for centuries before) these cliffs have formed a home of 

 Bonelli's eao-le. Two huge stick-built nests stand out in visible 

 projection from crevices in the crag, some forty yards apart. 

 To-day (April 3) the occupied eyrie contained a down-clad eaglet, 

 four partridges, and half a rabbit, besides a partridge's egg, intact, 

 and sundry scraps of flesh, all quite fresh. The nest was lined 

 with irreen olive-twio-s ; swarms of carrion-flies buzzed around, and 

 a great tortoiseshell butterfly alit on its edge while we were yet 

 inside. The parent eagles soared overhead, the female carrying a 

 half rabbit, which, in her impatience, she presently commenced to 

 devour, the pair perching on a dead ilex, and aflbrding us this 



1 Common British birds we exclude from notice, or miglit till a page with swarming gold- 

 finches, robins, wrens, chaflinch, blackbird, stonechat, whitethroats, tree-pipits, titlarks (the 

 last three on passage), blackcap, garden-warbler, whiuchat, redstart, and a host more. 



