382 Lord Lilford on the Ornithology of Spain . 
south at that season are always the largest, and are distinguished 
by the cazadores as “ Moris cos. 3 3 In April 1864 I found the 
Great Bustard in great numbers in the immediate neighbour- 
hood of Seville : and a brother ( Ibis 3 can bear witness to our vain 
J ti 
efforts to procure a specimen, and to the fact that a fine male 
was brought to our hotel which weighed 32 lbs. English. The 
Great Bustard is termed in Spanish u Abut ar da f as has been 
often said; the Little Bustard is known as “ Sisson while the 
Stone-Curlew is “ Alcaravan.” 
We quitted Aranjuez on May 27th, leaving Manuel and M. 
Michel to collect and skin birds for some days, as it was my 
intention to remain a short time in Madrid before going to San 
Ildefonso, and Manuel had insisted that it would be unwise to 
leave Aranjuez for good without having visited Villamejor, on 
the road between that place and Toledo, where he expected a 
rich harvest of raptorial birds, and where he assured me that the 
Imperial and Booted Eagles bred in considerable numbers. 
During the few days that we remained at Madrid I paid several 
more visits to the Casa de Campo, and found the Blue Magpies 
busily employed in their domestic duties. The nests are placed 
indiscriminately high and low, often within reach from the 
ground, and sometimes at the top of a lofty poplar, though I 
think the olive, the ilex, and the acacia are perhaps the most 
favoured trees. The nest varies a good deal in material and 
form, but is for the most part constructed of green moss and 
hairs on the inside, with a strong outwork of twigs and lichens, 
in some instances being very hard to distinguish amongst the 
moss-covered branches of the ilex and wild olives. The average 
complement of eggs, I should say, is six, though I have several 
times met with seven, and once or twice found five hard sat 
upon. As among the large number of eggs of this species which 
I have obtained there are a good many varieties, I take this 
opportunity of presenting the readers of ‘ The Ibis 3 with repre¬ 
sentations of a series sufficient to show what the most extreme 
of them are like (Plate X. figs. 3-8). The birds are very bold 
and noisy when they have young, but before they have hatched 
generally slip quietly away, and remain concealed, occasion¬ 
ally uttering a low chiding note. In most cases, where one 
