. My life among the wild birds in Spain . -off but should anybody deride my non-success, Iwould suggest they try for themselves the amusement of puttinga hand into a cavern held by a truculent Marten Cat, possiblywith kittens not far off. I know of a big cavern some hundreds of feet up the face ofa limestone cliff in the Serrania of Ronda where, in some years,several Griffons nest in close proximity one to another. To reachthis cavern it is necessary to sidle along a very narrow and some-what dangerous ledge from one flank of the cliff. Several of theGriffons nests are either on the floor of t
. My life among the wild birds in Spain . -off but should anybody deride my non-success, Iwould suggest they try for themselves the amusement of puttinga hand into a cavern held by a truculent Marten Cat, possiblywith kittens not far off. I know of a big cavern some hundreds of feet up the face ofa limestone cliff in the Serrania of Ronda where, in some years,several Griffons nest in close proximity one to another. To reachthis cavern it is necessary to sidle along a very narrow and some-what dangerous ledge from one flank of the cliff. Several of theGriffons nests are either on the floor of the cavern or on convenientledges around it and, once the cavern is reached, can be literallywalked into. But there is a sort of natural balcony running alongone side of the cavern which can only be got at by climbing afig tree for about 12 or 15 ft. (the topmost branches can be A Marten Cat in Possession ;8i seen on the left of the picture below) and then swinging oneselffrom it on to the balcony. At the far end of this is a considerable. A URE S CAVERN.( The Neophrons nest is in a hollow behind the stone balcony in front of the figure on the right). ledge where some yens ago I found a Griffons nest, a picture olwhich appears at p. 44. In [907, I visited this cavern with some young naval officers. 382 The Egyptian Vulture or Neophron There were no Griffons about, which I accounted for by the factthat a pair of Golden Eagles were nesting in the big cliff just pair of Neophrons had however taken possession and I wasfortunate in being able to take a picture of their nest with my Goerzlens. I subsequently sent my party up the tree to inspect the nestand took a photograph of them at the moment the leading climberhad reached it and was looking into it. I give the picture since itis eminently characteristic of the situations in which both Griffonsand Neophrons most delight. Although I have seen some hundreds of Neophrons nests in allsorts of situations, some most inaccess
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