456 WILD SPAIN. 



a two hours' ramble before breakfast on April 25th, just before 

 leaving for home, the following were observed : — sparrow-hawk, 

 a pair of snipe, magpies and jays, one heron, a pale blue 

 harrier and a golden eagle. 



Our short experience in Navarre is conspicuous more for 

 what we did not see than for what we did. Extensive forests, 

 thickly-grown, without underwood, and in a mountainous 

 region, are not favourable to bird-life. Such places lack 

 rabbits for the raptores, and are deficient in insect-food for 

 the warblers and other small species, while the absence of 

 marshy ground explains that of aquatic birds. April is, 

 however, — at any rate in such seasons as that of 1891 — quite a 

 month too early for ornithological research in Navarre. 



