Sketches of Spanish Bird-Life 395 
sketch and another inserted at p. 26. Her white breast shone in 
the sun with a satin-like sheen. 
Within sight (though fifteen miles away) is another eyrie of 
this species—the alternative nests not ten feet apart, merely a 
projecting buttress of rock separating the two vertical fissures in 
which they rest. This site is in a rock-stack standing out from 
the wooded slope of the sierra. The two eggs, slightly blotched 
with red, were laid in February. 
The rough bush-clad hills above our cliff are preserved, and 
presently meeting the game- 
keeper, we tried—(that daily 
toll of four partridges plus 
sundry rabbits had got on our 
consciences !)—to put in a word 
for our eagle-friends, assuring 
him they did him service by 
destroying snakes and big lizards 
(which they don’t). ‘Si, sefior, 
he agreed, adding, “y los in- 
sectos |” 
Farther along the cliff we 
found two nests of neophron, 
each containing two very hand- 
some eggs. This bird makes a 
comfortable home, the founda- 
tion being of sticks, but with a : 
; BONELLI'S EAGLES SOARING AROUND 
warmly lined central saucer, be- EYRIE 
decked with old ‘bones, snakes’ Note white patch in centre of back, between 
vertebrae, rabbit-skulls, and cates 
similar ornaments. The nests were on overhung shelves of the 
vertical crag, and (like those of the eagles) only accessible by 
rope. There lay a rat in one—and rather “ high.” 
Remaining denizens of these crags we can but briefly name. 
A pair of eagle-owls had three young (fully fledged by June 10) 
in a deep rock-fissure; there were also ravens, many lesser kestrels, 
and a colony of genets. 
III. Oak-Woop AnD SCRUB 
Cistus and tree-heath, genista and purple heather that 
brushes your shoulder as you ride, studded with groves of 
