Part 45 (1/2)

Within an easy half-day's ride fro in crenellated tiers fro Doves in dozens dash away as we ride through groves of white poplars, and the soft air is filled with theirof orioles and nightingales, cuckoos, and a score of warblers--Cetti's and orphean, Sardinian, polyglotta, Bonelli's The handsoster, is everywhere conspicuous, flirting a boldly-barred, fan-shaped tail that catches one's eye There are woodchats, serins, hoopoes; azure-blue rollers squawk, and brilliant bee-eaters poise and chatter overhead--their nest-burrows perforate the river-bank like a sand--dotterels and otters bask; while in the shaded depths beneath the fringing osiers lurk barbel intent to dash at belated grasshopper or cricket

[Illustration: SAVI'S WARBLER (_Sylcia savii_)

A spring-s by reat grey shrike, and while atch, its owner flies up carrying a lizard in her beak Half an hour later we see a second shrike, with falcon-like dash, capture another lizard basking in a sunny cranny a the rocks--no mean performance that There are snakes here also; one we killed, a coluber, on March 31, was 5-1/2 feet long and contained two rabbits shole and head first--one partly digested Another snake, quite s new; him we bottled in spirit and despatched to the British Museu us for a ”Lizard, _Blanus cinereus_” Lizard? Well, we learnt a lesson There are limbless lizards, and this was one--the subterranean ailis_) is another, and that also we did not know before There are curious reptiles here in Spain--the chaecko, _Salamanquesa_ in Spanish, haunts sunny rocks where insects abound But he carries war into the enely, but in force) the wild-bees' nests A Spanish bee-keeper gravely assured us that the cold-blooded gecko does this thing expressly to enjoy the sensation of being stung in twenty places at once! Here in a shady glade lie strewn broadcast the wings of butterflies--examine very closely the bush above, and presently an iris-less eye, expressionless as a grey pearl, willmantis (or _Santa Teresa_ in Spanish), a practical insect but no aesthete, since he devours the ugly body and casts aside the beauteous wings!--see his portrait at p 87 A butterflies we counted here the scarce stail, _Thas polyxena_ (hatching out on April 3), _Vanessa polychloros_, a big fritillary with blood-red under-surface to its fore-wings (_Argynnis maia_, Craured alongside, we know not what it is[69]

[Illustration]

For e (and probably for centuries before) these cliffs have fore stick-built nests stand out in visible projection fro, some forty yards apart To-day (April 3) the occupied eyrie contained a down-clad eaglet, four partridges, and half a rabbit, besides a partridge's egg, intact, and sundry scraps of flesh, all quite fresh The nest was lined with green olive-twigs; swarreat tortoiseshell butterfly alit on its edge while ere yet inside The parent eagles soared overhead, the fe a half rabbit, which, in her impatience, she presently co on a dead ilex, and affording us this sketch and another inserted at p 26 Her white breast shone in the sun with a satin-like sheen

Within sight (though fifteen miles away) is another eyrie of this species--the alternative nests not ten feet apart,the two vertical fissures in which they rest This site is in a rock-stack standing out frohtly blotched with red, were laid in February

The rough bush-clad hills above our cliff are preserved, and presently aes plus sundry rabbits had got on our consciences!)--to put in a word for our eagle-friends, assuring hi lizards (which they don't) ”Si, senor,” he agreed, adding, ”y los insectos!”

[Illustration: BONELLI'S EAGLES SOARING AROUND EYRIE

Note white patch in centre of back, between the wings]

Farther along the cliff we found two nests of neophron, each containing two very handsos This birdof sticks, but with a warmly lined central saucer, bedecked with old bones, snakes' vertebrae, rabbit-skulls, and si shelves of the vertical crag, and (like those of the eagles) only accessible by rope There lay a rat in one--and rather ”high”

Res we can but briefly naed by June 10) in a deep rock-fissure; there were also ravens, enets

III OAK-WOOD AND SCRUB

Cistus and tree-heath, genista and purple heather that brushes your shoulder as you ride, studded with groves of cork-oak--such was our hunting-field The reader's patience shall not be abused by a catalogue of ornithological fact True, ere studying bird-proble, alotta--or was it _Bonellii_?--when in the depths of os _hairy_--it was a wild-boar! Three horseh the bush--herds it is a _bull_ they are rounding-up; and a bull that had grown so savage and intractable that his life was forfeit A crash in the brushwood and we stand face to face Three minutes later that bull fell dead with two balls in his body; but two others, less well aimed, had whistled past our ears Those three minutes had been momentous--the choice, it had see in Spanish wilds has its serious side

The afternoon was less eventful Alrove had yielded spoil We need not specify spectacled, subalpine, and orphean warblers, woodpeckers, woodchats and grey shrikes, nightjars, owls, kestrels, and kites--so, others a strenuous cli a nest of booted eagle, two of black, and one of red kites, each with two eggs (the next tree held a nest of the latter containing a youngster near full grown) We had turned to ride homewards when, over a centenarian cork-oak on the horizon, we recognised (by their buoyant flight and white undersides) a pair of serpent-eagles The grotesque old tree was half overthrown, and on its top the usual single big white egg--this specimen, however, distinctly splashed with reddish brown In the sa cushats and doves, a woodpecker with four eggs, and a swars lively for the climber One of to-day's climbs, by the way, had resulted incidentally in the capture of a family of dormice, _Lirones avellanos_ in Spanish, handsome creatures with immense whiskers and arrayed in contrasts of rich brown, black and white

Half an hour later we descried the unle--a platfore cork-oak, the ht interrupt the view are always broken off The eagle, entirely black hite shoulders, only soared aloft when L was already half-way up The two handsoh they have since, presues Eagles, so soon as adult, pair for life; but that condition may require several years for full attainle the adolescent period is passed in a distinctive uniforo as 1883, however, we discovered the singular fact that this species breeds while yet (apparently) ”i pair in the paler pluloried in the rich sable-black of maturity, as sketched on p 31 This year (1910) we had cos on March 15--theblack, while his partner was parti-coloured A curious incident had occurred at that nest; at dawn next side the sitting eagle But on the arrival of the husband a furious scene ensued! The intruder (e acquit of dishonourable intent) was set upon, hustled, and violently ejected froal peace was soon restored, and presently the royal pair set out in co

These resident birds-of-prey breed early We have found the eagles' eggs by February 28, buzzards' on March 12, and red kites' on March 14

This spring was re May, soular flocks They often roosted in old kites' nests, and when disturbed therefrom misled us into a futile climb

WHITE-TAILED OR SEA-EAGLE (_Haliaetos albicilla_)--This does not properly belong to the Spanish zone We cannot find recorded a single authentic instance of its occurrence in that country, but can supply one ourselves

In the early days of February 1898 atched on several occasions an eagle (which at the tieese that are wont to assee Splendid spectacles these aerial hunts afforded The selected goose, skilfully separated frorand defence Fast he flew and far, noater, now soaring upwards in widening circle; but all the tie in strident tones that we could hear a ht could reach, did the assailant ood his hold

Months afterwards--it was before daybreak on Deceht” of geese at the Puntal, hard by, when an eagle (whether the salooeese (made of wood), passed on and fairly ”stooped” at those of No 2 Asplash, and proved to be (so far as we know) the only sea-eagle ever shot in Spain--a feht 12-1/2 lbs, expanse just under 8 feet

This is not the only instance in our experience of eagles hunting before the dawn We recall several others Apparently, if pressed by hunger, eagles start business early--almost as early as we do ourselves