FROM SPAIN. 473 
III. 
THE CINEREOUS VULTURE 
(Vultur cinereus). 
THE Great Cinereous Vulture is in Spain one of the rarer 
birds, and inhabits only a few districts of that country, for 
it is the vulture of the great woods, and of these there are 
not many in barren sunburnt Spain. I have myself only 
met with it in two localities. In the extensive royal park of 
the Pardo, which stretches from the Sierra Guadarrama 
almost up to the gates of Madrid, it nests among the ever- 
green oaks; and when I laid out a carcass there many of these 
gigantic birds appeared, five or six of which settled on the 
nearest oaks and carefully examined the surroundings. 
Of all the places that I visited in Spain, the Pardo is the only 
one where the Cinereous is commoner than the Griffon Vul- 
ture, for in all the other parts of the country the former is 
rare, the latter very abundant. In the fir-woods on the spurs 
of the Sierra Guadarrama it is said to nest every year. This 
information I received from a perfectly trustworthy source, 
but I never saw it there myself, much less its nest. 
In the Sierra de Gredos I saw one sitting on a rock at no 
great distance, but it was the only bird of the kind that I 
observed in those mountains. 
During my many excursions in Southern Spain, which 
lasted all day long, I never came across a Cinereous Vulture. 
According to Lord Lilford, however, there are many nests of 
it in the large woods between Seville and Cordova. This I 
can say nothing about, never having visited that district. 
