Sketches of Spanish Bird- Life 395 



sketch and another inserted at p. 26. Her white breast shone in 

 the sun with a satin-like sheen. 



Witliin sight (tliough fifteen miles away) is another eyrie of 

 this species — the alternative nests not ten feet apart, merely a 

 projecting buttress of rock separating the two vertical fissures in 

 which they rest. This site is in a rock-stack standing out from 

 the wooded slope of the sierra. The two eggs, slightly blotched 

 with red, were laid in February. 



The rough bush-clad hills above our clifl' are preserved, and 

 presently meeting the game- 

 keeper, we tried — (that daily 

 toll of four partridges plus 

 sundry rabbits had got on our 

 consciences !) — to put in a word 

 for our eagle -friends, assuring 

 him they did him service by 

 destroying snakes and big lizards 

 (which they don't). " Si, sefior," 

 he agreed, adding, " y los in- 

 sectos ! " 



Farther alono- the cliff" we 

 found two nests of neophron, 

 each containing two very hand- 

 some eggs. This bird makes a 

 comfortable home, the founda- 

 tion being of sticks, but with a 

 warmly lined central saucer, be- 

 decked with old bones, snakes' 

 vertebrae, rabbit-skulls, and 

 similar ornaments. The nests were on overhung shelves of the 

 vertical crag, and (like those of the eagles) only accessible by 

 rope. There lay a rat in one — and rather " high." 



Remaining denizens of these crags we can but briefly name. 

 A pair of eagle-owls had three young (fully fledged by June 10) 

 in a deep rock-fissure ; there were also ravens, many lesser kestrels, 

 and a colony of genets. 



III. Oak-Wood and Sckub 

 Cistus and tree -heath, genista and purple heather that 

 brushes your shoulder as you ride, studded with groves of 



BONELLl'S EAGLES SOARING AROUND 

 EYRIE 



Note white pateli in centre of back, between 

 the winjrs. 



