ments, or criticifm upon fountains and water works.
The nightingale and cuckow are heard here the latter
end of April. That elegant bird the bee eater, called by
the Spaniards Abejamxo, the merops apiafter of Linnteus,
which our travellers tell us comes no further South than
Andalufia, is known not only to breed at Aranjuez and
live ihere all the year round, but is .alfo found at St. Ilde-
fonfo, which is 20 leagues more to the northward. The
golden thrulh is alfo feen here, a beautiful bird with a
bright yellow plumage, the i&erus of Edwards, called
oropenduln by the Spaniards, and I'auriot by the French,
the oriolus o f Cateiby and Linnaeus. Amidft the great
variety of birds in thefe woods, there is one about the
fize of a cuckow, called Pito, o f a beautiful purple. Such
a diveriity of obje&s could not fail to excite the genius
and fire o f the Spaniih writers ; for my part I willingly
join with that elegant poet Don Gomez de Zapia, who
has fo naturally defcribed them, in a poem, o f which the
following lines are the beginning :
En lo mejor de la Felice Efpana
Do el Rio Tajo tertia fu corrida,
Y con fus criilalinas aguas bana
La tierra, entre las tierras efcojida,.:
Efta una Vega de belleza eftrana !
Toda de verde yerba entretejida,
Donde natura y arte en corrrpetencia,
Lo ultimo pufieron de potencia (a).
(af Parnaffo Efpanol Tom 3. Madrid 1773» The
TRAVELS THROUGH SPAIN. 8*sJ
The Palace being an old building with feveral additions
is more in the iiyle o f a hunting feat, as Philip
the fécond defigned it, than o f a royal manfion, nor is
there any thing very particular in the apartments, to
take olf from the enjoyment o f fo many fine obje&s a-
broad. The new wings to the Palace are finifhed; in,
one is a play houfie, and in the other a chapel. Part o f
the eieling o f the former was painted by Mengs, who is
now (1779) at Rome painting a1 holy family for the principal
altar in the chapel.
There are feven fine pi&ures o f Luca- Jordano in the
apartment called E l Cabinete Antiguo, and fix- others in
that de ¿os Mayordomasparticularly one,, is univerfal-
fy admired, in which: a number o f beaits aie repre-
fented Iiftening to Orpheus, and Teeming to- be ftruck
with the melody o f his lyre. The portraits of. the
grand Duke and Dntchefs o f Tufcany by Mengs, are in
a new apartment called', the king’s drefling room, In
the chapel, over the great altar there is, a. fine pi&ure of
the Annunciation by Titian,, prefentedby him-to Charles
the fifth, and brought from the convent o f Jufter after
the death- o f that Emperor. The Porcelain* Cabinet
where there are feveral large pieces of the king’s-own
Manufa&ory,; is alfo an objed o f curiofity to-a.traveller,
l a a, word,, this- charming, place is highly indebtedto>