FROM SPAIN. 467 
crannies, and ledges which the Griffon Vultures always use 
as halfway halting-places on their way to the true Sierra 
Guadarrama. A Spaniard who accompanied me pointed out 
a spot marked with droppings as the nesting-place of one of 
these birds ; but this, as I had an opportunity of assuring 
myself, was a mistake, and the projecting ledge was merely 
one of their most favourite resorts. 
During the afternoon I crouched under the cliff, well 
concealed by a large stone ; and presently a Griffon Vulture 
came flapping along, pitched on the rock, and settling itself 
comfortably was beginning to preen its feathers, when I 
frightened it off by firing an unsuccessful shot at it with ball. 
In a few minutes a second appeared at the same spot, and I 
tried shot; but the distance was too great, and the hard-hit 
bird, leaving the place with its feet hanging, quickly disap- 
peared behind the nearest hill. Jt was joined by a comrade, 
who came back and circled cautiously round the place. No 
long interval elapsed before another vulture flew straight to 
the rock, and had hardly settled itself to its satisfaction in a 
broad niche, when I sent a bullet through the middle of its 
breast, and it fell rattling down over the stones. It proved 
to be a very pale-coloured and extremely old specimen. 
I now left the place to turn my attention to some nests; 
but as soon as I got a few hundred paces from the rock, 
I saw two more vultures alight upon it, and in the far 
distance I observed many others, all coming up in the same 
direction. 
In the striking primary rock formations of the Sierra de 
Gredos I had also repeated opportunities of observing Griffon 
Vultures among other surroundings, namely, high up among 
the snow-fields. During a long and difficult ride from the 
village of Bohoyo, when we followed the course of a stream 
through a splendid valley and finally reached the ridge of the 
mountain, I constantly saw vultures soaring aloft or sitting 
2H2 
