BIRD-LIFE OF THE SPANISH SPRING-TIME. 263 



noble tyrants choose a line of country, and with wide 

 sweeps to right and left, crossing and recrossing each 

 other at the central point like well-trained setters, they 

 beat miles of scrub in a few hours, while a Buzzard or 

 Marsh-Harrier will hover and circle round a single spot 

 and spend half a day over a few acres of rushes. Nothing 

 can well escape the eagles ; shortly one of the pair detects 

 the hidden game — for an instant his flight is checked to 

 assure a deadly aim, then with collapsed wings, and a 

 rushing sound which is distinctly audible a quarter of a 

 mile away, he dashes headlong to earth. A second or two 

 later, he rises with loud vociferations, and a hapless 

 rabbit suspended from his yellow claws. Their short, 

 sharp bark is repeatedly uttered by the eagles while 

 hunting. Eabbits seem to constitute nine-tenths of their 

 prey, to judge from the golgotha of these little animals' 

 skulls below their nests. 



The Stone-Curlew (QSdicnenms crepitans) is another fine 

 species characteristic of the scrub, where it is resident or 

 at least is found throughout the year, and their rectilineal 

 footprints are everywhere visible on the sandy deserts. 

 On these flat plains they are most difficult of access, and if 

 winged, run like a hare ; towards evening they become 

 very noisy, piping something like a Curlew in spring — on 

 the night of April 16th, while skinning a lynx by the light 

 of our fire, the air around seemed full of them, their 

 vociferations resounding from every side. We found the 

 first nest, or rather a single egg lying on bare sand, on 

 April 18th. We have come across these birds in widely 

 different situations ; high out on the barren stony moun- 

 tains of the Minho, in Northern Portugal, packs of them 

 frequented the few damp spots along the courses of the old 

 Koman aqueducts — how few such weak spots were, testifies 

 to the solidity of these ancient works. This was in 

 November. Their local name there was " Mountain 

 Curlew " (Masarico de rnontes). Apropos of these hills, the 

 following rather curious incidents are perhaps worth 

 recording. Far out among the boulder-strewn ridges, while 

 Eed-leg shooting, we used to find numbers of Green Wood- 



