175 
Lord Lilford on the Ornithology of Spain. 
dant, and, by concealing myself and squeaking after the fashion 
pursued by British gamekeepers for the destruction of stoats, 
weasels, and the like, I soon gathered twenty or thirty of these 
inquisitive and lively birds within a few yards of me. I had pre¬ 
viously made acquaintance with them in Andalucia, but had not 
had time or opportunity to watch them closely as I did upon 
the present occasion. Their notes are very varied, at one time 
reminding one of the chatter of a flock of Starlings; now and 
again a Jay-like screech is to be heard, and sometimes a harsh 
chatter, somewhat like the alarm-note of the Mistletoe-Thrush. 
The flight and actions of these birds resemble those of the com¬ 
mon Magpie, Pica caudata , but they are much less shy. I was 
assured that they did not breed till May; nor indeed did I ex¬ 
pect to find them nesting, as, on May 1st, 1864, one only out of 
some twenty new nests which I found in the neighbourhood of 
Cordova contained eggs. The Spanish Magpie is a very local 
species; the principal facts I have been able to discover as to its 
distribution are as follows :—It is extremely abundant in the im¬ 
mediate neighbourhood of Madrid, and particularly affects the 
woods of evergreen oak. It is found more or less commonly 
throughout New Castile, La Mancha, Estremadura, the province 
of Leon south of Salamanca, and the portion of Andalufia to the 
north of the great southern Sierras. In the Sierra Morena it 
is found in myriads, and does considerable damage in the olive- 
yards and corn-fields. North of the Guadarrama mountains in 
Old Castile it is comparatively scarce,, and, as far as I could 
learn, is unknown in Catalonia, and extremely rare in Valencia 
and Murcia. In Portugal, I understand that it is common in 
the neighbourhood of Lisbon {Cf. Ibis, 1865, p. 337), but, /" 
never having visited that country, I can only speak from hearsay 
on the subject. In Andalucia and Estremadura this bird is 
known as (( Mohino,” in New Castile as “ Rabilargo” and in 
Leon as “ Ruipego.” 
Whilst watching the Spanish Magpies, I heard at a short 
distance a cry which I at once concluded to be that of the com¬ 
mon Buzzard, Buteo vulgaris. I advanced quietly through some 
thick undercovert, and still heard the cry repeated, apparently 
close to me; but the trees stood thickly together, and I could not 
