A pair disturbed at their eyrie.] As head of the list must stand the Spanish Ibex (_Capra hispánica_), a game-animal of quite first rank, peculiar to the Iberian Peninsula, and whose nearest relative--the Bharal (_Capra cylindricornis_)--lives 2500 miles away in the far Caucasus. In Spain the ibex inhabits six great mountain-ranges, each covering a vast area but all widely separated. After a crisis that five years ago threatened extermination, this grand species is now happily increasing under a measure of protection and the ægis of King Alfonso. Next--a notable neighbour of the ibex (and practically extinct in central Europe)--we place the lone and lordly Lammergeyer. A memorable spectacle it is to watch the huge _Gypaëtus_ sweeping through space o'er glens and corries of the sierra in striking similitude to some weird flying dragon of Miocene age--a vision of blood-red irides set on a cruel head with bristly black beard, of hoary grey plumage and golden breast. Watch him for half an hour--for half a day--yet never will you discern a sign of force exerted by those 3-yard pinions. With slightly reflexed wings he sinks 1000 feet; then, shifting course, rises 2000, 3000 feet till lost to sight over some appalling skyline. You have seen the long cuneate tail deflected ever so slightly--more gently than a well-handled helm--but the wide lavender wings remain rigid, not an effort that indicates force have you descried. Yet the power (so defined as "horse-power") required to raise a deadweight of 20 lbs. through such altitudes can be calculated by engineers to a nicety--how is it exerted? That the power is there is conspicuous enough, and at least it serves to explain fabled traditions of giant lammergeyers hurling ibex-hunter from perilous hand-hold on the crag, to feast on the remains below; or, in idler moment, bearing off untended babes to their eyries--alas! that the duty of nature-students involves dissipating all such romance. [Illustration: TYPES OF SPANISH BIRD-LIFE BLACK VULTURE (_Vultur monachus_) Nests in the mountain-forests of Central Spain, and winters in Andalucia. Sketched in Cote Doñana--"Getting under way."]