456 Captain II. Lyues — Bird-notes 



ridges and peaks of its sierra, otherwise San Cristobal rises 

 '•' solo " from elevations of about 1500 ft. at its western, to 

 2500 ft. at its eastern end. 



Sucli is the " San Cristobal^' of this paper, the object of 

 which is to treat of altitudes which have received but scant 

 attention from the pens of ornithologists as compared to the 

 plains, marismas, woods, and hills of the lowlands. But for 

 the purposes of comparison mention will occasionally have 

 to be made of the surrounding country (so far as the writer's 

 personal acquaintance goes, that lying between Jerez and 

 Ronda), so that a few words couceruing it will not be amiss. 

 In the Jerez direction, i. e. to the westward, the aspect is 

 that of a scries of ridges and grotips of hills diminishing in 

 altitude from about 2000 to 1000 ft. and becoming more and 

 more undulating, less steep and craggy, until at about 

 twenty-tive miles the low rolling hills and, finally., the plains 

 and marismas stretch ont for the last twenty miles to meet 

 the Atlantic seaboard. 



The latter zone it is proposed in this paper to style the 

 " lowland." 



The former zone, which it is proposed to style the 

 " foothills," is a countrv of confined and fairly well watered 

 valleys ; of upland stretches, pleasantly clothed with cork and 

 ilex trees wherever the carbonero's hand has not been too free ; 

 and of scrub-clad hillsides, with groves of ilex ("encina") 

 and the deciduous Spanish oaks {" roble '") here and there. 



]\Iany of these hills and ridges are crowned Avith crags or 

 with piles of huge boulders ; sometimes a stream, in the 

 course of ages, has eaten its way through a limestone ridge 

 and flanked its course by a series of perpendicular walls ; 

 Avhile here and there a precipice concealed among the folds 

 of the hills affords a surprise to the wayfarer by suddenly 

 appearing above him as he rounds a corner; and it is to such 

 "features" as these that the ''foothills'" owe most of their 

 ornithological wealth, or at any rate their chief interest : here 

 are to be found the Vultures, Golden and Bonelli's Eagles, 

 Eagle-Owls, the colonies of House- and Crag-Martins, Blue 

 Rock-Thrushes, Black AAlieatears, &.C., &'c. Similar features. 



