18 
collection, and was shot near Aranjuez about forty miles from Madrid. 
The spotted eagle {Aq. ncevia) is only, so far as I know, an 
occasional visitant. On the other hand Bonelli’s eagle (A. Bonelli) 
and the little hooted eagle {A. penned a) are common, the former 
nesting in rocks, the latter in the woods. At Gibraltar there are 
at least two pau's of Bonellis, and they seem by no means dis- 
turbed by the morning and evening gun ; indeed raptorial birds, 
as a rule, are rather attracted than dismayed by the report of a gun, 
and a shot wUl generally bring up several species on the look out 
for something which may fall to their share. Those in England 
whose knowledge of raytores is confined to the much persecuted 
kestrel, sparrow hawk, and barn owl, may possibly be of a different 
opinion as to the familiarity of the race, birt I am waiting of a 
country where there are no pheasants, and where partridges, hares, 
rabbits, woodcocks, snipe, and ducks appear well able to maintain 
themselves against such a stock of winged and four-footed vermin 
as Turkey alone can rival. 
The sea eagle {Halicjetus albicilla, L.) although common in 
Eastern Europe down to about the same latitude, is only a rare 
visitant to Spain, bi:t the osprey {Pandion haUtetus) breeds at 
several places along the sea cliffs, there being one nest at Gibraltar ; 
and at the island of Dragonera off Majorca, in a cliff some 1100 
feet high and about 300 feet from the summit, is another, which 
has evidently been resorted to for ages. The reptile-eating short- 
toed eagle {Circcetus gaUicus, Gm.) is abundant in the marshy 
districts where there is some moderate sized timber • and with 
regard to this species I must, at the risk of destroying at once my 
reputation for veracity, give a list of the “ happy family ” I once 
found in possession of an old wide-spreading cork-tree. First there 
was the huge nest of this eagle with its one large white egg ; on 
another branch a pair of black kites {MiJviis migrans, Bodd) 
were making their nest ; a kestrel was sitting on its nest on 
another branch ; a white owl flew out of the riven trunk as one 
of us climbed up ; lower down was a jackdaw’s nest with one egg, 
and I was made uncomfortably aw^are of a hoopoe’s nest in the 
same trunk by bedaubing my liand with its odoriferous lining, 
for as most ornithologists are aw'are, this bird uses ordure, especially 
human, in the plastering of its nest. I have no doubt that, as is 
almost invariably the case, the foundation of the eagle’s nest held 
