Unexplored Spain

Appendix 407

INDEX 413

List of Plates

H.M. KING ALFONSO XIII. SPEARING A BOAR Frontispiece

FACING PAGE

TYPICAL LANDSCAPE IN COTO DOÑANA 30

EGRET HERONRY AT SANTOLALLA, COTO DOÑANA 32

RED DEER IN DOÑANA. From a Drawing by Joseph Crawhall 36

THREE VIEWS IN COTO DOÑANA: (1) SAHARAN SAND-DUNES; (2) TRANSPORT; (3) A CORRAL, OR PINEWOOD ENCLOSED BY SAND 40

RED DEER. From Drawings by Joseph Crawhall 46

INSPIRING MOMENTS 51

GUNNING-PUNT IN THE MARISMA 90

WILD-GOOSE SHOOTING ON THE SAND-HILLS 90

VASQUEZ APPROACHING WILDFOWL WITH CABRESTO-PONY 90

STANCHEON-GUN IN THE MARISMA--DAWN 106

WILD-GEESE IN THE MARISMA 122

SPANISH IBEX IN SIERRA DE GRÉDOS 140

HEADS OF SPANISH IBEX 152

RED-DEER HEADS, SIERRA MORÉNA 156

WOLF SHOT IN SIERRA MORÉNA, MARCH 1909 158

HUNTSMAN WITH CARACOLA, SIERRA MORÉNA 158

PACK OF PODENCOS, SIERRA MORÉNA 158

WILD-BOAR, WEIGHING 200 LBS. 162

THE RECORD HEAD (RED DEER), SIERRA MORÉNA 162

RED DEER. From Drawings by Joseph Crawhall 166

RED DEER. From Drawings by Joseph Crawhall 170

WILD-BOAR. From Drawings by Joseph Crawhall 170

RED-DEER HEADS, SIERRA MORÉNA 172

BULL-FIGHTING. From a Drawing by Joseph Crawhall 194

BULL-FIGHTING. From a Drawing by Joseph Crawhall 198

AFTER THE STROKE. From a Drawing by Joseph Crawhall 202

SCENES IN SIERRA DE GRÉDOS 212

"AT THE APEX OF ALL THE SPAINS" 216

TWO SPANISH IBEX SHOT IN SIERRA DE GRÉDOS, JULY 1910 220

GREAT BUSTARD 250

SLENDER-BILLED CURLEW 250

GREAT BUSTARD "SHOWING OFF" 260

FLAMINGOES ON THEIR NESTS 272

WILD CAMELS 276

CAPTURING A WILD CAMEL IN THE MARISMA 280

THE HOME OF THE CHAMOIS 286

PEAKS OF SIERRA NEVÁDA 306

NEST OF GRIFFON 306

ROYAL SHOOTING AT THE PARDO, NEAR MADRID 334

Illustrations in the Text

PAGE

Lammergeyer (Gypaëtus barbatus) 3

Woodchat Shrike (Lanius pomeranus) 7

Griffon Vulture (Gyps fulvus) 9

Wooden Plough-share 12

Cetti's Warbler (Sylvia cettii) 14

Dartford Warbler (Sylvia undata) 16

Fantail Warbler (Cisticola cursitans) 17

Rock-Thrush (Petrocincla saxatilis) 18

A Village Posada 20

Serin (Serinus hortulanus) 23

Bonelli's Eagle (Aquila bonellii) 26

Black Vulture (Vultur monachus) 27

White-Faced Duck (Erismatura leucocephala) 28

Spanish Imperial Eagle 31

Spanish Lynx 33

Greenshank (Totanus canescens) 34

Sketch-Map of Delta of Guadalquivir 35

Marsh-Harrier (Circus aeruginosus) 38

"Silent Songsters" 39

Blackstart (Ruticilla titys) 39

Great Spotted Cuckoo (Oxylophus glandarius) 41

"Globe-Spanners" 42

"Confidence" 43

Abnormal Cast Antler 44

Egret 45

"Suspicion" 49

Altabaca (Scrofularia) 51

Tomillo de Arena 51

"What's This?" 52

Antlers 56

Stag "taking the Wind" 57

Sylvia melanocephala 60

Reed-Climbers 61

Great Grey Shrike (Lanius meridionalis) 62

Spanish Green Woodpecker (Gecinus sharpei) 63

Tarantula 64

Stag--as he fell 67

Hoopoes at Jerez, March 19, 1910 69

"Room for Two" 71

Wild-Boar--at bay 73

Wild-Boar--"Bolted past" 79

Wild-Boar 81

Praying Mantis 87

Avocet 88

Samphire 90

Greylag Geese 92

White-Eyed Pochard (Fuligula nyroca) 94

"Flamingoes over" 95

Pochard (Fuligula ferina) 96

Flight of Flamingoes 97

Wild-Geese alighting 98

Wildfowl in the Marisma 101

Flamingoes 102

Stilt 105

Godwits 113

Root of Spear-Grass 115

System of driving Wild-Geese 117

Shelters for driving Wild-Geese 118

Godwits 124

Wild-Geese alighting on Sand-Hills 129

Wild-Geese 133

Godwits 134

Sketch-Map of the Nucléo Central of Grédos 141

Grey Shrike 162

Azure-Winged Magpie 163

Sardinian Warbler 164

Griffon Vulture 166

Pair of Antlers 167

Stag--"picking his way up a Rock-Staircase" 168

"The Hart bounced, full-broadside, over the Pass" 169

Pernales 175

Sparrow-Owls (Athene noctua) and Moths 182

Hoopoes 183

Woodchat Shrike and its "Shambles" 184

Desert-loving Wheatears 185

Red-crested Pochard (Fuligula rufila) 186

Red-crested Pochards 190

"Minor Game" 210

Southern Grey Shrike 212

Griffon Vulture and Nest 215

"The Way of an Eagle in the Air" (Lammergeyer) 218

Black Vulture (Vultur monachus) 222

Roller (Coracias garrula) 226

Trujillo 227

"Scavengers" 228

Wolf-proof Dog-Collar 231

Woodlark 232

Sketch-Map of Las Hurdes 234

White Wagtail 238

Wolf-proof Sheepfold 239

The Great Bustard 243

Well on Andalucian Plain 244

Calandra Lark 246

Spanish Thistle and Stonechat 248

Bustards--"Swerve aside" 252

Bustards passing full broadside 254

Imperial Eagle--"Hurtling through Space" 258

Draw-Well with Cross-Bar 259

"Hechando la Rueda" 260

Tail-Feathers of Great Bustard 261

Little Bustard 263

Stilts in the Marisma 265

Flamingoes 266

Stilts disturbed at Nesting-Place 268

Flamingoes and their Nests 269

Flight of Flamingoes 270-1

Head of Flamingo 273

Little Gull and Tern 274

Flamingoes 277

"The Camels a-coming" 281

Chamois 283

A Chamois Drive--Picos de Europa 288

Hoopoe 293

Lammergeyer (Gypaëtus barbatus) 303

"Unemployed": Bee-eaters on a Wet Morning 311

Woodlark (Alauda arborea) 313

Lammergeyer 314

Soaring Vulture 315

Golden Eagle Hunting 317

Rock-Thrush 318

Spanish Sparrow 320

Imperial Eagle Passing Overhead 342

Pinsápo Pine (Abies pinsapo) 347

Rock-Bunting (Emberiza cia) 348

Pinsápo Pines 350

Crossbill 351

Lammergeyer Overhead 353

Golden Eagle Hunting 354

Vultures 356

Lammergeyer entering Eyrie 358

Lammergeyer 361

Griffon Vultures 368

Reed-Bunting 378

Grey Plover 381

Head of Crested Coot 384

Avocets Feeding 385

White-Faced Duck (Erismatura leucocephala) 387

Purple Heron (Ardea purpurea) 389

Grey Plovers 390

Orphean Warbler 391

Savi's Warbler (Sylvia savii) 393

Unknown Insect 394

Bonelli's Eagles 395

Great Spotted Cuckoo (Oxylophus glandarius) 400

Crossbills (Loxia curvirostra) 402

CHAPTER I. Unexplored Spain

UNEXPLORED SPAIN

INTRODUCTORY

The Spain that we love and of which we write is not the Spain of tourist or globe-trotter. These hold main routes, the highways from city to city; few so much as venture upon the bye-ways. Our Spain begins where bye-ways end. We write of her pathless solitudes, of desolate steppe and prairie, of marsh and mountain-land--of her majestic sierras, some well-nigh inaccessible, and, in many an instance, untrodden by British foot save our own. Lonely scenes these, yet glorified by primeval beauty and wealth of wild-life. As naturalists--that is, merely as born lovers of all that is wild, and big, and pristine--we thank the guiding destiny that early directed our steps towards a land that is probably the wildest and certainly the least known of all in Europe--a land worthy of better cicerones than ourselves.

Do not let us appear to disparage the other Spain. The tourist enjoys another land overflowing with historic and artistic interest--with memorials of mediæval romance, and of stirring times when wave after wave of successive conquest swept the Peninsula. Such subjects, however, fall wholly outside the province of this book: nor do they lack historians a thousand-fold better qualified to tell their tale.

* * * * *

The first cause that differentiates Spain from other European countries of equal area is her high general elevation. This fact must jump to the eye of every observant traveller who books his seat by the Sûd-express to the Mediterranean. Better still, for our purpose, let him commence his journey, say at the Tweed. From Berwick southwards through the heart of England to London: from London to Paris, and right across France--all the way he traverses low-lying levels; fat pastures, fertile and tilled to the last acre. His aneroid tells him he has seldom risen above sea-level by more than a few hundred feet; and never once has his train passed through mountains--hardly even through hills; he can scarce be said to have had a real mountain within the range of his vision in all these 1200 miles.

Now he crosses the Bidassoa ... the whole world changes! At once his train plunges into interminable Pyrenees, and ere it clears these, he has ascended to a permanent highland level--a tawny treeless steppe that averages 2000-feet altitude, and sometimes approaches 3000, traversed by range after range of rugged mountains that arise all around him to four, five, or six thousand feet. Railways, moreover, avoid mountains (so far as they can). Our traveller, therefore, must bear in mind that what he actually sees is but the mildest and tamest version of Spanish sierras. There are bits here and there that he may have thought anything but tame--only tame by comparison with those grander scenes to which we propose guiding him.

For the next 500 miles he never quits that austere highland altitude nor ever quite loses sight of jagged peaks that pierce the skies--peaks of that hoary cinder-grey that shows up almost white against an azure background. Never does he descend till, after leaving behind him three kingdoms--Arragon, Navarre, and Castile--his train plunges through the Sierra Moréna, down the gorges of Despeñaperros, and at length on the third day enters upon the smiling lowlands of Andalucia. Here the aneroid rises once more to rational readings, and fertile vegas spread away to the horizon. But our traveller is not even now quite clear of mountains. Whether he be booked to Malaga or to Algeciras, he will presently find himself enveloped once more amidst some fairly stupendous rocks--the Gaëtánes or Serranía de Ronda respectively.

Spain is, in fact, largely an elevated table-land, 400 miles square, and traversed by four main mountain-ranges, all (like her great rivers) running east and west. The only considerable areas of lowland are found in Andalucia and Valencia.

Naturally such physical features result in marked variations of climate and scene, which in turn react upon their productions and denizens, whether human or of savage breed. We take three examples.

LAMMERGEYER (Gypaëtus barbatus)

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