3Q-0 
184 Lord Lilford on the Ornithology of Spain. 
infant Magpies from the nest by force after the latter are 
hatched. 
In a range of cliffs overlooking the plain of Sotomayor, Manuel 
had expected to find a nest of Bonelli’s Eagle, Aquila honellii; but 
although we several times saw this species in the neighbourhood, 
we could not ascertain that they had bred there this season, 
the nest that he had known of in previous years having been 
appropriated by a pair of Egyptian Vultures, Neophron perc - 
nopterus. In the plains below I found the Little Ringed Plover, 
JEgialites minor , in pairs, frequenting the mule-tracks, and 
apparently not caring about the shingle-beds and sand-banks of 
the Tagus close at hand, where I once or twice noticed the 
Kentish Plover, JEgialites cantianus. We shot our first spe¬ 
cimen of the Red-necked Nightjar, Caprimulgus ruficollis, at 
the foot of the cliffs, and obtained several more specimens of 
Potamodus cettiiy Merops apiaster, Alauda crist at a, Oxyloplius 
glandarius , and the like. Quails, Coturnix communis , were 
arriving in great numbers, and calling in every direction ; and 
the clear notes of the Golden Oriole resounded from the oaks. 
In the valley Manuel shot a fine fox amongst the rocks, which 
he left as bait to attract Vultures. In many instances, we 
found that eggs and young of hole-breeding birds—Hoopoes, 
Woodpeckers, Starlings, and the like—had been devoured by the 
lizards ( Lacerta ocellata), with which the country swarms, and 
in one case we disturbed a large lizard in the act of devouring 
the parent Hoopoe on her nest. The keepers assured me that 
these reptiles destroy an immense number of young rabbits, and 
will finish a whole sitting of Partridge’s eggs at a meal. My dog, 
a Norfolk retriever, was completely puzzled by these lizards, and 
on being told to fetch one would sit on his haunches and whine, 
not knowing what line to take with the gaping, wriggling 
animal before him, so different to anything he had seen during 
the course of his orthodox British education. 
On May 3rd we took upwards of twenty eggs of the Spotted 
Cuckoo from various Magpies’ nests in the trees along the road 
leading to the Puente Largo, a bridge over the Jarama, some 
three miles from Aranjuez, in one case finding eight Cuckoo’s 
eggs, with five of those of the rightful owner, in one nest. I 
