. Wild Spain ... records of sport with rifle, rod, and gun, natural history and exploration . Keturning homewards next morning, while we werepassing through the outlying spurs or foothills of thesierra, a pair of large dark eagles were observed huntinga scrub-covered ridge. The larger of the two presentlyswept down upon an unlucky rabbit and forthwith com-menced to devour it, the male perching on a stump hardby. They were favourably situate for a stalk, and byriding round in a wide circuit I gained the reverse of theridge. On creeping forward to my marks, however, Icould at flrst see nothing—o
. Wild Spain ... records of sport with rifle, rod, and gun, natural history and exploration . Keturning homewards next morning, while we werepassing through the outlying spurs or foothills of thesierra, a pair of large dark eagles were observed huntinga scrub-covered ridge. The larger of the two presentlyswept down upon an unlucky rabbit and forthwith com-menced to devour it, the male perching on a stump hardby. They were favourably situate for a stalk, and byriding round in a wide circuit I gained the reverse of theridge. On creeping forward to my marks, however, Icould at flrst see nothing—only a few palmetto bushes some * One nest still contained an nnfledged youngster. On my appear-ance at his abode the unsightly little brute at once disgorged a mass ofcarrion that necessitated an immediate retreat. EXPERIENCES WITH EAGLES AND VULTURES. 217 distance down the slope. Having crawled to these, I per-ceived the eagle busily tearing up her prey in a slight hollowof the ground. She was only forty yards away, yet the sit-ting shot (broadside on) produced no effect. A green wire-. BONELLIS EAGLE. (Adult Female, shot July 10th, IS?) cartridge, No. 1 from the left, broke a wing as she rose,and, after some little trouble, she was secured. She provedto be a Bonellis Eagle {Aqnila honellii), a perfect adultspecimen, dark brown above, with white breast l^oldly 218 WILD SPAIN. streaked and splashed with bhiek : the bushy stockmgs and warm reddish-brown tarsi contrasting with the longwhite apron which overlapped them. {See photo.) Thus occurred—over twenty years ago—our first intro-duction to Bonellis Eagle: since then we have met withthem frequently in the southern sierras, in the Castiles,and once in the Biscayan Provinces. It is, in fact, thecommonest mountain-breeding eagle in Spain, and iseasily recognizal)le by its short, dappled wings, and by thepeculiar feature that the middle of the back is white—thus,if seen from above, the bird appears to have a large white
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