Serrania de Ronda 363 
400 yards away. The intervening ground was rugged—rocks and brush- 
wood with scattered pines—and except the first 50 yards, the stalk 
offered no difficulty. I had passed the dangerous bit, and was already 
within 200 yards, when in a moment the wet mist settled down again 
and I saw the game no more. Curiously, on the fog first lifting, an eagle 
sat all bedraggled and woe-begone on a rock-point hard by, his feathers 
fluffed out and a great yellow talon protruding, as it seemed, from the 
centre of his chest. Then a faint sun-ray played on his bronzed 
plumage: he shook himself and launched forth in air, sweeping down- 
wards—luckily without moving the ibex, though they took note of the 
circumstance. 
In the lower forests here are some pig and roe-deer. A far 
greater stronghold, however, for both these game-animals is at 
Almoraima, belonging to the Duke of Medinaceli, some six or 
eight leagues to the westward. Almoraima covers a vast extent 
of wild mountainous land of no great elevations generally; but all 
wooded and jungle-clad. On the lower levels grow immense 
cork-forests. Here, during a series of monterias in February 
1910, in which the writer, to his lasting regret, was prevented 
from taking part, a total of 19 roe-deer and 52 boars was 
secured. The two best roebuck heads measured as follows :— 
Length 
(outside curve) Circumference. Tip to Tip. 
No. 1 94” 3h" 38” 
No, 2 gh" 48” 3" 
III. Sierra DE JEREZ 
These mountains (being within sight of our home) formed the 
scene of our earliest sporting ventures in Spain. It is forty years 
ago now, yet do we not forget that first day and its anxieties, as 
we rode by crevices that serve for bridle-paths, along with a too 
jovial hill-farmer, Barréa by name, who persisted in carrying a 
loaded gun swinging haphazard and full-cock in the saddle-slings 
—that it was loaded we saw by the shiny copper cap on each 
nipple! Our objects that day were boar and roe-deer; but 
presently a partridge was descried sprinting up the rugged screes 
above. Out came the ready gun, and next moment all that 
remained of that partridge was a cloud of feathers and scattered 
anatomy. The ball had gone true. Barréa casually shouted to 
a lad to pick up the pieces, himself riding on as though such 
practice was an everyday affair. My own experience of ball- 
