MR. C. A. HAMOND ON A SHORT TRIP TO SPAIN. 
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into gunshot. I failed to find a naturalist’s shop or a museum of 
natural history, and caged birds were generally Goldfinches or 
Quail. To Cadiz by rail, a most interesting journey, for the 
latter part is through a marshy plain, where I saw Pratincoles, 
Lesser Egrets, Hull' backed Herons among the cattle, and Redshanks. 
Between Zerey and Cadiz are extensive salt marshes, cut out into 
pans for evaporating the salt, huge mounds of which glitter like 
snow in the sun. There were numbers of Stilts here and other 
undistinguishable Waders. 1 longed to be able to see more of that 
marsh. 
At Cadiz, surrounded on three sides by sea, I noticed nothing in 
the bird line but Terns at a distance, species unknown. 
Returning by sea to Algeciras we found the fleet in, and our son 
at the hotel ; his one idea was to get into the country, so we started 
for Granada by the same line of rail as far as BobaJilla, whence we 
branched off to Granada. After endless miles of yellow plain and 
monotonous olive groves, we traversed the green fertile Vega, 
irrigated by the snow-fed streams from the Sierra Nevada. We 
stayed in a hotel at the Alhambra, high above the city, and devoted 
our mornings to the Moorish palaces and forts. Hundreds of 
Swifts frequent the towers and were especially noticeable nesting 
in the fine tracery of the beautiful Court of the Lions, in fact, to 
my son they were the principal attraction of the Alhambra, though 
he noticed Blackcaps, Black-headed Warblers and Pied Flycatchers 
in the gardens. Washington Irving, in his delightful ' Tales of 
the Alhambra,’ mentions a long lean fellow whom he observed 
manoeuvring two or three fishing rods from the top of one of the 
towei- 3 , he was amusing himself with catching “ Swallows and 
Martlets” with hooks baited with flies. Our afternoon walks were 
generally taken among the rough hills behind the Alhambra, 
“ The Silla del Moro ” or Seat of the Moor ; here we met with 
our first Blackchat, a bird that puzzled us for some time, a nest of 
Woodchat Shrike with young, nearly Hedged, in an olive tree close 
to a house, Redlegged Partridges, Crested, Short-toed and Oalandra 
Larks, a Kite, Ocellated Lizards, a big Snake which escaped us, 
Swallow-tail Butterfly laying eggs on Fennel, scarce Swallow-tails 
in poor condition, Bath V bite, Heath Fritillary, Me/etcsa ctfha/td, 
Tailed Blue, and many of our common English Butterflies. Tlie 
flowers on the hill-side must have been a lo\ely sight three 
