380 
Lord Lilford on the Ornithology of Spain. 
partridges, which are extremely abundant here. We found the 
Spotted Cuckoos in the open plain far away from anything 
worthy the name of tree. The pretty little Spectacled Warblers 
{Sylvia conspicillata) enlivened the solitudes with their lively 
actions and hurried notes, whilst the four common Spanish 
Larks kept rising at almost every step. The specimens of Gale- 
rita cristata which I obtained in Spain are decidedly smaller 
and more rufous in colouring than the average from other parts 
of Southern Europe *; and I fancy that Spanish examples of 
Melanocorypha calandra are less distinctly marked than those of 
Italy; but I have not had opportunities of comparing these last- 
named birds. Wherever there are trees in this neighbourhood, 
there are to be found numbers of Lanius rutilus , which is the 
common Shrike of Spain ; Lanius meridionalis and Lanius minor 
are not uncommon in Andalucia, and Lanius excubitor is found 
occasionally in the north. I have reason to believe that the 
North African Teleophonus tchagra occurs in certain places in the 
extreme south-west of Spain; but it is certainly not common in 
any part of the country, and is probably very locally distributed. 
From May loth till the 24th I was quite laid up and unable to 
leave the house; but Manuel kept M. Michel well employed, 
bringing in one evening two very fine adult specimens of Vultur 
monachus, which he killed as they were regaling upon the re¬ 
mains of the fox he had shot amongst the rocks of Sotomayor 
on April 29th, as before mentioned (p. 184). He also brought 
in several Egyptian Vultures {Neophron percnopterus) killed from 
their nests in the range of cliffs at the spot just mentioned; and 
Agapo managed with considerable difficulty to procure three 
eggs of this last-named species, all incubated. The stench from 
one nest was, he told me, so abominable that even he, hardened 
as he was by the perpetual consumption of garlic and bad 
tobacco, could hardly make up his mind to swing himself into 
the cleft in which it was situated: the cause of this overpower¬ 
ing perfume was an accumulation of putrefying snakes, which 
both Manuel and Agapo seemed to consider an unusual occur¬ 
rence. In the other nests nothing more offensive than bones of 
* [This would appear to he G. theclw, L. Brehm, 1 Naumannia,’ 1858, 
pp. 210-213. —Ed.] 
