246 



WILD SPAIN. 



comes, literally, from a " valley of stones," and in the Alto 

 Douro the vineyards occupy hillsides composed of little 

 bits of (what looks like) broken slate and disintegrated 

 shale, so little coherent, that the slopes must be terraced 

 before they are cultivable. Strange anomalies — plant a 

 vine in rich soil, and you get vine leaves — in tropical 

 lands, the vine becomes a barren evergreen — in arid soil 

 or shale, it produces nectar. 



Firm and compacted as appears the substance of these 

 sand-hills — the sandstone of a future age — it yet retains, 

 to some extent, its shifty and unstable character. At in- 

 tervals its masses elect to move onwards and to engulf 

 forests over which, for centuries, they have impended. 

 Immediately below where we sit, the ridge terminates, 

 abrupt as a precipice. Two hundred yards beyond, the 

 sloping sand-foot is studded with half-buried pines — 

 several forest monarchs already entombed to their centres, 

 alive, but struggling in their death-throes. Of others, 

 farther back, only the topmost branches protrude, sere, 

 yellow, and dead, from the devouring particles. And 

 beneath those glistening" sands, hidden far from sight, 

 doubtless there rest the skeletons of buried forests of 

 bygone days. 



Just above us in the peak of the stone-pine under whose 

 shade we enjoy the midday rest, is a huge platform of 

 sticks — a deserted throne of the king of birds. Now this 

 eyrie is deserted, the daylight shows through its centre, 

 and the tree is occupied by different tenants — a pair of 

 Cushats : before now we have seen them share the same 

 tree with the tyrant. Bird-notes are hushed during the 

 midday heat, and silence reigns over the forest : presently 

 from afar comes the strident kark, kark of the Eaven, and 

 then from mid-air resounds the musical scream of a Kite 

 floating in the heaven above. 



Eiding along the open glades, the most conspicuous 

 birds in spring are the brilliant Eollers and Hoopoes, 

 parties of Hawfinches and Crossbills, always shy, an 

 occasional Spotted Cuckoo (C glandarius) or Southern 

 Grey Shrike (L. mcridionalis) ; handsome Woodchats (L. 



