Preface 
THE undertaking of a sequel to Wild Spain, we are warned, is 
dangerous. The implication gratifies, but the forecast alarms 
not. Admittedly, in the first instance, we occupied a virgin 
field, and naturally the almost boyish enthusiasm that character- 
ised the earlier book—and probably assured its suecess—has in 
some degree abated. But it’s not all gone yet; and any such 
lack is compensated by longer experience (an aggregate, between 
us, of eighty years) of a land we love, and the sounder apprecia- 
tion that arises therefrom. Our own resources, moreover, have 
been supplemented and reinforced by friends in Spain who repre- 
sent the fountain-heads of special knowledge in that country. 
No foreigners could have enjoyed greater opportunity, and 
we have done our best to exploit the advantage—so far, at least, 
as steady plodding work will avail; for we have spent more than 
two years in analysing, checking and sorting, selecting and 
eliminating from voluminous notes accumulated during forty 
years. The concentrated result represents, we are convinced, 
an accurate—though not, of course, a complete—exposition of 
the wild-life of one of the wildest of European countries. 
No, for this book and its thoroughness neither doubt 
nor fear intrudes; but we admit to being, in two respects, out 
of touch with modern treatment of natural-history subjects. 
Possibly we are wrong in both; but it has not yet been demons- 
trated, by Euclid or other, that a minority even of two is neces- 
sarily so? Nature it is nowadays customary to portray in 
somewhat lurid and sensational colours—presumably to humour 
a “popular taste.” Reflection might suggest that nothing in 
Nature is, in fact, sensational, loud, or extravagant; but the 
lay public possess no such technical training as would enable 
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