154 



WILD SPAIN. 



the ibex had found a retreat as secure as the mer de 

 glace of Almanzor. Long may they live to enjoy it ! 



The retreat, however, was not gained, on one occasion, 

 without loss — we, too, had learned by past experience. 

 Already the driving line had appeared on the eastern 

 heights, suggesting that another beat was to prove blank : 

 not a sign of game had appeared — nothing save the 

 Alpine choughs* and crag-martins, Alpine swifts, and a 



IBEX-HUNTERS OF GREDOS— A SKETCH BY THE CAMP-FIRE. 



pair of peregrines gyrating in the upper air : at intervals 

 also a pair of golden eagles, whose huge eyrie projected 

 from a rocky pinnacle, passed over in stately flight, their 

 broad square tails deflected very conspicuously sidelong, 

 to guide their aerial evolutions. Here purple tufts of 



* We succeeded in taking several eggs of this bird in the crevices 

 of a sheer crag, after a somewhat perilous climb. These eggs are 

 very light-coloured ; the ground colour is pale cream, faintly spotted 

 with brown and dull greyish splashes. 



