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WILD SPAIN. 



highest point, the Agredera peak, is 1,000 feet plumb) 

 a pair of Golden Eagles had their nest, or rather two 

 nests, which they used alternately. The birds did not 

 appear, but we saw the nests, immense masses of 

 sticks conspicuously protruding from crevices in the crag, 

 about forty yards apart. These cliffs are also tenanted by 

 a colony of Genets. 



In Andalucia, as in Eastern Europe, the Neophron 

 occasionally nests upon trees. In the lovely, park-like 

 country half a day's ride eastward of Jerez, several pairs 

 breed yearly on high encinas, or ilex. Here, in spring, we 

 have seen the old vultures on the nest, and in July 

 have observed big young — dark brown fellows — perched on 

 adjoining branches. For instance : — 



April 10th, 1891. — Examined to-day three Neophrons' 

 nests on ilex-trees at the Encinar del Visco — broad, solid 

 structures, twice as large as those of the Kites, and warmly 

 lined with cows'-hair, wool, &c. Owing to the backward 

 season, there were no eggs, though in 1883 we took two 

 clutches (each two eggs) on same date.* 



One afternoon in the early part of July, 1872 — a period 

 when Andalucia was seething with revolution and com- 

 munistic ideas — a young Golden Eagle was brought in by 

 Jose Larrios, a man we often employed in sport and 

 country campaigns — the same Jose whose dare-devil esca- 

 pade with a bull we have already related (see p. 10). 

 This eaglet he had brought from the Sierra de Alcala de 

 los Gazules, nearly forty miles distant, where his brothers 

 held a small mountain-farm ; and there remained, he said, 

 another fledgeling in the eyrie. The writer, in those early 

 days, had not succeeded in shooting the Eoyal Eagle, and 

 the ambition to do so was intense, despite the difficulty of 



* Observed at this place and date a greater variety of butterflies 

 than ever before in Spain— brilliant Painted Ladies and Fritillaries 

 (? sp.) ; but most conspicuous were " yellows " of various kinds : 

 Thais' poly xena and Colias edusa, large pale " sulphurs," some whole- 

 coloured, others with bright orange-tips ; in others, again, the orange 

 adjoined the body. There were also many Heaths and Browns, 

 Speckled Wood, Bath Whites, and many (to us) unknown species. 



