26 DRESSER : THREE WEEKS ON THE GUADALQUIVIR. 



met a couple of goat-herds, one of whom, on being asked if 

 he knew of any nests, told us that not far off was a nest of the 

 Short-toed Eagle, but he thought that it contained a young bird. 

 However, on going with him to the nest, he climbed the tree for 

 us, and brought down an egg, which proved to be much incubated. 

 The nest was tolerably large, and placed in the very top of a rather 

 large pine, which stood rather apart from the adjoining trees. The 

 old bird flew round close enough to enable us to recognise it 

 perfectly well, so we did not shoot it. The goat-herd called this 

 eagle the ' One-egg Eagle ' — a very apt designation, as it always lays 

 one egg only. 



On our way back to the launch we passed a bank in which 

 were numbers of Bee-eaters' holes, and many of these birds were 

 flying round, but as yet there were no eggs. Many Hoopoes ( Upupa 

 epops) were seen, and a nest we examined, which was in a hole at 

 the foot of an old olive tree, contained young birds nearly fledged. 

 The Common Bunting appears to be very numerous here, and we 

 found several nests ; all the eggs, however, were too much incubated 

 to be preserved. We also noticed a Booted Eagle {Aquila pennata) 

 flying round, but did not succeed in finding any nest of this species. 

 In the evening we blew the eggs, and discussed matters as to 

 what we should do next week, eventually deciding that I should go 

 the next day up to Seville and arrange for permission to visit some of 

 the ' cotos,' or large tracts of land kept for sporting purposes, and 

 that the Colonel should take the men and visit a pine wood in 

 another direction to that where we had been to-day. Accordingly, 

 on the morrow (12th May), after seeing them off, I started for 

 Seville, where I spent most of the day, and succeeded in getting the 

 required permission and a good deal of useful information. We had 

 arranged to meet in the evening at Coria, but I arrived there rather 

 early, and went ashore to examine the place at my leisure. As the 

 town was not particularly inviting, I strolled with our skipper to 

 a large factory outside the town, where we met a very pleasant 

 fellow, a Belgian, who carried on an extensive poultry and rabbit 

 farm. He had some very large incubators, and told me that he had 

 several times hatched out Bustards' eggs, two of which he then had 

 in one of his incubators. With him we went through the orange 

 gardens, and for the first time I tasted and greatly appreciated the 

 sweet lemon, of which fruit he gave me a supply to take back to 

 the launch. 



On our way back to the town I examined some of the houses 

 burrowed in the perpendicular cliff near the town, which are not 

 uncomfortable, and one or two contained quite large rooms, the 



Naturalist, 



