in two Andalucian Sierras. 487 



than three or four pairs being near one another and as often 

 as not only one) enables it to take advantage of quite small 

 " tajos/' containing perhaps only one possible ledge or hole. 

 This^ too, will account for the Neophron breeding in greater 

 abundance in the lowlands. 



Sierra Nevada. — The oiily two seen during our visit were 

 at 4000 ft. The Black Vulture was never met with in 

 either Sierra. 



Gypaetus barbatus. Laramergeier. 



Sa7i Cristobal. — To observe the Lammergeier in its 

 breeding-haunts was one of the chief objects of our visit to 

 San Cristobal. Both in March and April we several times 

 observed a single bird, and on March 25th saw one, through 

 glasses at long range, enter a side-face in a precipitous, but 

 not very large, cliff in one of the outlying spurs of the 

 mountain (4000 ft.). On reaching the cliff, we found that 

 the bird had left unobserved during our scramble up the 

 very steep, broken hillside. P'rora the tip of a projecting 

 spur, a little above it, we could see into the nest, which was 

 in a small cave only just sutficiently high for such a bird to 

 stand lapright at the entrance ; there was a dirty platform 

 of wool intermixed with sticks and a bone or two, but it was 

 empty. 



On April 24th we revisited the place and saw the Lam- 

 mergeier several times, but the nest remained empty, and 

 we were unable either to find an occupied nest near it, or to 

 account for its emptiness by the suggestion that it had been 

 robbed; since, although the " tajo ^^ was only 60 ft. high 

 and the nest only 20 ft. from the top and facing sideways 

 to the general line of cliff, the nest was quite inaccessible 

 without a rope. 



This nesting site confirms the experience of others — that 

 the Lammergeier dislikes company. No place in that 

 neighbourhood could have been more remote from the 

 various colonies of Vultures. 



Sitting quietly one day, concealed just below the crest of 



