242 



WILD SPAIN. 



heads — almost owl-like — recurved wings and white under- 

 sides, cannot be mistaken.* Not requiring them as speci- 

 mens, we continued our ride, and during the day found 

 two nests of the Buzzard, each with three eggs ; the only 

 nests of this species found this spring — except one with 

 young in June — the Buzzard being more numerous in 

 winter, when almost every dead tree is occupied by one of 

 these indolent hawks. All the Spanish-breeding Buzzards 

 are of the normal dark brown type. The Goshawk (Astur 

 palumbariiis) we have also observed in these Andalucian 

 forests both in spring and winter, but have not chanced 

 to find it breeding here ourselves, though it is on record 

 that it occasionally does so. 



The next two nests discovered were both those of the 

 Kite (Milvus ictinus), each on a lofty pine. There are in 

 Spain two kinds of Kite, whose wild musical scream is 

 characteristic of these lonely woodlands. There is the 

 Milana real — the Bed Kite, resident in Spain, and dis- 

 tinguishable from the migrant Black Kite {Milvus migrans) 

 by the broad white band on the under-wing, caused by 

 the basal half of the primaries being white beneath (this 

 band in M. migrans being smoke-grey), and by the more 

 deeply forked tail. The Black Kite is altogether a more 

 dusky coloured species. 



The eggs of the two species, and those of Buzzards and 

 others, are indistinguishable ; it is therefore necessary to 

 shoot or trap the birds from the nesr to make sure of 

 identification. But the Bed Kite breeds earlier (at the 

 end of March, • and early in April) and in more secluded 

 spots than its ally, whose habits, moreover, are, in places, 

 almost gregarious. We have seen a score of Black Kites' 

 nests in a small patch of wood, not two acres — but eggs 

 are not laid till quite the end of April or early in May. 



A singular, but well-known, habit of the Kite (the Bed, 



* The large irides and general appearance of this species seem to 

 indicate crepuscular tendencies, and an affinity— obsolete or evolvent 



to the StrigidtB, which is recognized in its generic name, Circaetus, 



next to the Harriers. But, in fact, the affinity is more apparent than 

 real, for the Serpent-Eagle is of purely diurnal habits. 



