"June 9th.—Shot a huge Coluber, six feet two inches, greatly distended in centre. On opening him found two nearly full-grown rabbits, swallowed whole."
Under such conditions, the presence of the hawk-tribe is an actual advantage to the game-preserver—they are his under-keepers and vermin-trappers. No doubt, were it possible, first, to put down effectually the rapacious reptiles, and then to thin the ranks of the rapacious birds, the result would be a prodigious increase in the numbers of the game and other defenceless creatures on which they prey. This—mutatis mutandis—is practically what game-preservation has accomplished in England; but in Spain the physical conditions are different, and it is more than questionable if any similar measure of success could there be attained. Not Don Quixote himself ever conceived an enterprise more chimerical than the extermination of the snakes in La Mancha or Andalucia.
With the first of the daylight the eagles and most of the larger raptores turn out for their morning hunt, and during the heat of the day retire to enjoy a siesta on the peak of some lofty oak or pine, where they remain conspicuously perched for hours together. Towards evening predatory operations are generally resumed. It is curious to observe their different methods of going to work; the Kites sweep about with buoyant, desultory flight, not unlike large gulls; the Circäetus wheels in wide circles over the cistus-scrub; Montagu's Harrier hunts with impetuous flight, in long, straight bee-lines close over the mancha, always appearing about to alight but not doing so. But for systematic searching-out of a breadth of land, none compare with the Imperial Eagle; usually in pairs, these noble tyrants choose a line of country, and with wide sweeps to right and left, crossing and recrossing each other at the central point like well-trained setters, they beat miles of scrub in a few hours, while a Buzzard or Marsh-Harrier will hover and circle round a single spot and spend half a day over a few acres of rushes. Nothing can well escape the eagles; shortly one of the pair detects the hidden game—for an instant his flight is checked to assure a deadly aim, then with collapsed wings, and a rushing sound which is distinctly audible a quarter of a mile away, he dashes headlong to earth. A second or two later, he rises with loud vociferations, and a hapless rabbit suspended from his yellow claws. Their short, sharp bark is repeatedly uttered by the eagles while hunting. Rabbits seem to constitute nine-tenths of their prey, to judge from the golgotha of these little animals' skulls below their nests.
The Stone-Curlew (Œdicnemus crepitans) is another fine species characteristic of the scrub, where it is resident or at least is found throughout the year, and their rectilineal footprints are everywhere visible on the sandy deserts. On these flat plains they are most difficult of access, and if winged, run like a hare; towards evening they become very noisy, piping something like a Curlew in spring—on the night of April 16th, while skinning a lynx by the light of our fire, the air around seemed full of them, their vociferations resounding from every side. We found the first nest, or rather a single egg lying on bare sand, on April 18th. We have come across these birds in widely different situations; high out on the barren stony mountains of the Minho, in Northern Portugal, packs of them frequented the few damp spots along the courses of the old Roman aqueducts—how few such weak spots were, testifies to the solidity of these ancient works. This was in November. Their local name there was "Mountain Curlew" (Masarico de montes). Apropos of these hills, the following rather curious incidents are perhaps worth recording. Far out among the boulder-strewn ridges, while Red-leg shooting, we used to find numbers of Green Woodpeckers miles away from trees—they were attracted thither by the swarms of ants. Nightjars (Caprimulgus europæus) and Little Owls also abode there; the latter fluttered out from under one's feet, and after a most un-owlish, up-and-down flight, would dive back under some big boulder, more like a fish than a bird. Small flights of Teal also resorted to these heights during the day, sitting among the heather, and returning to the marshes at night.
Food of Spanish Raptorial Birds—Analyses of examinations of their crops—as follows:—
(See [p. 259.])
| Kites examined, 21. | ||
| Snakes, Lizards, Blindworms, &c. | 9 | cases. |
| Locusts, elytra of coleoptera, &c. | 9 | " |
| Bones and remains of small birds | 5 | " |
| Rabbits and young Redlegs (1 each) | 2 | " |
| Egg-shells | 0 | " |
| Note.—We have shot Black Kites fairly crammed with Locusts. | ||
| Harriers examined, 17. | ||
| Frogs, Snakes and other reptiles | 8 | cases. |
| Egg-shells | 7 | " |
| Scorpions, coleoptera and other insects | 3 | " |
| Game (1 Quail, 1 young and 1 putrid rabbit) | 3 | " |
| The Marsh-Harrier in spring seeks frogs, eggs, and young birds; in winter, frogs, wounded birds, and chance reptiles. Montagu's Harrier takes chiefly the lesser reptiles and eggs—occasionally rabbits—and departs entirely in winter. | ||
| Large Eagles examined, 8. | ||
| Rabbits, Partridge, &c. | 8 | cases. |
| Reptiles, eggs, or insects | 0 | " |
| Small Eagles examined, 10. | ||
| Rabbits and other game | 4 | cases. |
| Reptiles (no eggs or insects) | 4 | " |
| Small birds | 3 | " |
| Sundries (1 young eagle! See p. 215) | 1 | " |