^52 WILD SPAIN. 



was being discussed. We were away by sunrise, at which 

 hour the singular, resonant song of the Partridge-cocks 

 (Red-legs) was ubiquitous : from almost every ilex-grove 

 came the half-choking chukar, chukar, while the love-sick 

 bird bowed and gesticulated, standing nearly bolt upright 

 with half-expanded wings on some dead branch or shat- 

 tered trunk, sometimes on the crest of a sand-ridge.* 



Within a quarter-mile of the lodge we found a Kite's nest, 

 shot the old bird, replaced her two eggs with two hen's 

 eggs and a steel-trap : and had hardly ridden two hundred 

 yards ere the male swept down and was caught. Seldom 

 are so fine a pair of birds secured so easily! During 

 this day we found no fewer than six nests, for the Kite, as 

 before stated, prefers the open country to the forest, and 

 almost each clump of cork-trees was tenanted by a pair. 

 These cork-groves are also occupied by many other species 

 — by birds of plumage whose resplendent hues appear 

 almost tropical — such as Golden Oriole, Roller, Bee-eater, 

 Hoopoes, Woodpeckers, Azure-winged Magpie, and others 

 hardly less brilliant. Amid the ilex-groves the Golden 

 Oriole hangs suspended, hovering like a Kestrel in mid- 

 air, his rich orange lustre justifying the Spanish name 

 — oropendola : the Roller, clad in chestnut and azure, 

 and rich parti-coloured Hoopoes and Pied Woodpeckers 

 flit among the foliage. Presently a harsh " chack, chack" 

 announces the arrival of a wandering party of Bee-eaters, 

 most brilliant of European birds ; and a score of these 

 sweep round, alternately rising and poising, or soaring 

 on clean-cut, hawk-like wing, then darting downwards 

 amidst the masses of flowering heaths in pursuit of indus- 

 trious aphides. The Bee-eaters pass on: but there is no 

 truce for the insect-world, for other deadly enemies, the 

 Woodchat and Southern Grey Shrike, sit by on every bush, 

 intent on impaling heavy-flying bee or beetle. Prom the 



* Partridges commence this love-song as early as February. In 

 March it is continuous at sunrise and towards dusk. Here is an 

 attempt to syllable it : — 



" Chuck, chuck . . . churrouk, churrouk, 

 Chukar, chukar, choftk ! " 



