464 ORNITHOLOGICAL SKETCHES 
splendid positions for their dwellings, and the train, as it rattles 
through a long narrow rocky valley, is constantly surrounded 
by these vultures. 
Opposite one of the small stations there rises a high and 
perfectly perpendicular cliff, where every hole, cleft, and cranny 
is occupied with nests, and among many pairs of Griffon 
Vultures I found several couples of Egyptian Vultures and 
one nest of the “ Stein” Eagle. 
With the glass I watched the lively stir at the nests, where 
the halfgrown young were sitting upright on the edges of 
their abodes, and the old birds were majestically flying to and 
fro, or perching on the protuberances of the rocks to digest their 
meals. This interesting place might truly be called a vulture 
colony. 
I found no Griffon Vultures in the immediate neighbour- 
hood of Seville or on the “marismas” of the Guadalquiver, 
for there the character of the whole district does not in the 
least meet the requirements of these great birds. I saw them, 
however, throughout Central Spain, especially in the stony 
barren surroundings of Madrid. Along the Manzanares, 
just outside the town, and over the royal preserves of the 
Casa de Campo, I noticed many of them returning to the 
Sierra Guadarrama from their hunting-excursions, in company 
with Cinereous and Egyptian Vultures. 
Between Madrid and the high mountains there lies an 
elevated plateau covered with miserable oakwoods, and there 
I laid out a carcass as a bait for the vultures. Some of the 
Cinereous Vultures which nest in these woods, and afterwards . 
a few Egyptian Vultures, Hagles, Black Kites, and Ravens, 
came to the place, but only one Griffon Vulture dropped 
down to the bait, although I saw numbers of them flying to 
the mountains at a great height. 
I think 1 may safely assume that this species is far more 
generally distributed over the entire country at other periods 
