385 
Lord Lilford on the Ornithology of Spain . 
bird-life was to be beard. My friend Don Manuel Sanchez, of 
Calle de Alcala, brought me great numbers of the eggs of the 
Blue Magpie, with a few other species, and would not hear of 
any remuneration, as I had made him a present of an English 
work on ornithology, which he could not read, but the plates of 
which gave him extreme delight. A Spanish White, Bewick, 
or Yarrell still se fait desirer. There is no work whatever on 
general Spanish zoology, though a few lists of the birds and 
insects of some, provinces, published in the Proceedings of the 
Royal Academy of Madrid, induce us to hope for better things ; 
yet [ much fear that any general attention to natural history in 
Spain will long remain a thing of manaha. 
On June 2nd we left Madrid for San Ildefonso, better known 
perhaps as La Granja, from the palace which is situated in the 
village. Taking the northern line of railway as far as Villalba, 
we thence proceeded by diligence over the Guadarrama, arriving 
at our destination early in the afternoon. The road over the 
Sierra is very fine, the southern side being very stern and 
barren; on crossing the frontier of Old Castile, at the summit 
of the pass, we entered a magnificent pine-forest, through which 
we rapidly descended till we emerged on level ground near 
Valsain, a village about two miles from San Ildefonso, at the 
foot of the mountains, the lower slopes of which are clothed 
with dense oak-copse; and below them again the plains of Old 
Castile stretch away unbroken as far away as the eye can reach 
in the direction of Valladolid. San Ildefonso is beautifully 
situated immediately at the foot of the Sierra, surrounded by 
shady copses, and watered by the rapid Eresma, whilst the snowy 
peak of La Penalara, eight thousand feet high, towers in the 
background, appearing so close in this fine air that one is led 
to imagine that two or three hours would bring one to it, al¬ 
though the ascent is in fact a good long day^s hardish work. 
The only birds I noticed on the journey were, besides the in¬ 
evitable Woodchats, Larks, and Bee-eaters, a few Blue Magpies, 
one or two Greater Spotted Woodpeckers (Ficus major ), and 
a Goshawk, which dashed across the road close to us. We 
found no inn open at San Ildefonso, as the Court was still 
absent ; but we obtained comfortable lodgings in a private house, 
