xiv 



PREFACE. 



ports had been touched, and his notes on the latter refer 

 to little more than Andalusia and the neighbourhood of 

 Valencia, though these districts are among the richest 

 in the peninsula. Spain, as he subsequently wrote, had 

 been the subject of his youthful dreams by day and 

 night, and, after his previous agreeable experience, it 

 was only natural that he should renew his attempt to 

 become better acquainted with it — indeed it may be 

 truly said that, to the end of his days, his interest in 

 cosas de Espana, and especially its ornithology, never 

 slackened. Accordingly in the spring of 1865 he 

 returned thither, accompanied by Lady Lilford, and this 

 time obtained leave to carrv on his observations in the 



V 



grounds of the Casa del Cainpo and of El Pardo — royal 

 domains near Madrid, — as well as subsequently at 

 Aranjuez and Sotomayor. Thence he proceeded to 

 San Ildefonso and Segovia ; but his hereditary enemy 

 pursued him, and for a great part of the time he was 

 unable to walk. The admirable narrative of his doings 

 may be read, and always with delight, in ' The Ibis ' 

 for 18G5 and 1866, and not a little contributed to 

 his election — by acclamation it may be said — to the 

 Presidency of the British Ornithologists' Union, when, 

 on the 27th of March, 1867, it was resigned by Colonel 

 Drummond-Hay. 



It has seemed advisable to dwell on these earlier davs 

 of Lord Lilford's career, since they must be little 

 known to the ornithologists of the present time, and 

 in his efforts and example he was second to none in 

 obtaining for 'The Ibis' that high reputation which it 



