The only other animal that crossed my line during the day was a mongoose, but objects of interest never lacked. Close behind my post, a huge stick-built nest filled a small ilex. This was the ancestral abode of a pair of griffons, and its owners were already busy renewing their home, though my presence sadly disconcerted them. Hereabouts these vultures breed regularly _on trees_, a most unusual habit, due presumably to the lack of suitable crags which elsewhere form their invariable nesting-site. Cushats and robins lent an air of familiarity to the scene, while azure-winged magpies--a species peculiarly Spanish--hopped and chattered hard by, curiosity overcoming fear. There were also pretty Sardinian warblers, with long tails and a white nuchal spot like a coal-tit. Other birds seen in this sierra include merlin and kestrel, green woodpecker, jay, blackbird, thrush, redwing, woodlark, and chaffinch; and on off-days we shot a few red-legged partridges. The two packs employed to-day numbered forty--twenty-four big and sixteen small _podencos_, all yellow and white, the larger having a cross of mastiff. That evening two of the best in the pack were missing--"Capitan," killed by a boar in the _mancha_; the other returned during the night, fearfully wounded, one foreleg almost severed. [Illustration: SARDINIAN WARBLER] The head-keeper told us that these _podencos_ fear the he-wolf. They will run keenly on his scent, but never dare to close with him as they do with boar. Yet curiously they have been known to fraternise with the she-wolf, and in no case will they attack, but rather incline to caress her. It was estimated by the drivers that eighty head of big-game (_reses_) were viewed to-day. Thirty-two shots were fired, but only my one stag was killed. Had the wind held steady, much better results were probable.[29] Included among the guests at Mezquitillas--and they represented rank and learning, arms, State, and Church--was a genial and imposing personality in the poet laureate of Spain, Sr. D. Antonio Cavestany, who celebrated this delightful if somewhat unlucky day in a series of graceful couplets. We are wholly unequal to translate, but copy two or three which readers who understand Spanish will appreciate:-- Del Poeta al arma no dieron Las Musas mucha virtud: Cuatro ciervos le salieron ... Y los cuatro se le fueron Rebosantes de salud! Suya fue la culpa toda: Con la escopeta homicida Á apuntar no se acomoda ... Si les dispara una oda No escapa ni uno con vida! Sin duda no plugo á Dios Que del ganado cervuno Fueran las Parcas en pos Total; tiros, treinta y dos Yvenados muertos, uno!!! ¿Quien realizó tal hazaña? Verguenza de humillacion, Mi frente al decirlo baña. Fue el Ingles ... la rubia Albion Quedó esta vez sobre España!!