EXPERIENCES WITH EAGLES AND VULTURES. 



219 



into the writer's puesto. This 'eagle was in the act of 

 lifting the heavy duck off the water when a charge of big 

 shot cut him down. 



Our old cazador, Felipe, who has since become keeper on 

 a rabbit and partridge preserve fully twenty miles from the 

 nearest point of the sierra, told us that so many eagles 

 come down to prey on his rabbits during the months of 

 November and December that during the preceding season 

 he had killed over thirty. Felipe added that they were 

 mostly Golden and Bonelli's Eagles (Aguila perdicera he 

 called the latter), with a few Serpent-Eagles earlier in the 

 autumn. At the time of our visit (January) most of the 

 eagles had retired to the sierras to breed : but a few days 

 afterwards Felipe rode in with a cargo which sorely 

 puzzled the officials of the consumos (octroi), for under 

 either arm he bore an eagle, and in a sack on his 

 back were two immense wild-cats ! The eagles were 

 A. chrysdetus, and an immature, tawny-breasted Bonelli. 



