Our ‘‘Home-Mountains” 359 
and with gently closing wings plunged into a cavern in the crag. 
We felt we had our object assured; yet on examining these 
mighty piles of rocks—a couple of hours’ stiff climbing—it was 
evident we were mistaken, for no nest, past or present, did they 
reveal. It was on yet a third stupendous crag, quite a mile from 
the alternative site first discovered, that this year these lammer- 
geyers had fixed their home. The nest was in quite a small cave 
in the rock-face; more often (as described in Wild Spain) the 
lammergeyer prefers a huge cavern in the centre of which is piled 
an immense mass of sticks, heather-stalks, and other rubbish—the 
accumulation of years—and lined with esparto-grass and wool. The 
egos always number two and are richly coloured, whereas the griffon 
lays but one, and that white. Although laying takes place as early 
as January, yet the young are unable to fly before June. Our 
principal object this year was to sketch the lammergeyer in life, 
and in this several rough portraits serve to show that we succeeded 
—so far as in us lies. 
There remain notes of later vernal developments in these 
beautiful sierras; but alas! this chapter is already too long, so 
over the taffrail they go. 
