Part 44 (1/2)
One phenomenon struck us as inexplicable Of the birds that did re to the vernal ioes, for example (what few there were), continued massed in solid herds up to mid-May A band of 300 that we exah fully 90 per cent were adults in perfect pink feather) contained not a single paired couple Hard by the fla These, last year, nested at this spot, building upon or aerously open situation for such big and conspicuous birds This spring, though many remained in the marisoes, by the way, had exhibited extre On February 22, for exa up the Straits of Gibraltar, we detected them in quite incredible nue even of pris _cirri_ that first caught our eye So vast was their aerial elevation that it was only after prolonged exarey specks as being birds at all; presently a nearer band, directly overhead, revealed their characteristic identity The bulk of these held a southerly tendency, towards Africa; others drifted undecided; while several bands, halting between two opinions, when lost to sight heeling beyond the Spanish hills
Ducks also in mid-May serried the skies in utterly anachronous skeins--reely gregations of mallards One such pack on May 10 certainly counted 500--a nuether in Spain before, not even in winter This was at the Hondon A similar phenomenon was observed with the white-faced ducks These curious creatures also re, on the open waters of Santolalla--open only because aquatic plants had forborne to grow In norreat cane-brakes and islanded reed-jungles, within whose recesses these a not a reed had grown--partly owing to cattle having destroyed the earlier shoots which are usually protected by deep water There was literally no covert within which these ducks (and the swarrebes) could breed, even were they so minded--which they were not!
The only ducks that had paired in earnest were gadwall, garganey, common and white-eyed pochard (of which the first three nest here in very liether with normal quantities of mallard
[Illustration: HEAD OF CRESTED COOT
The frontal plate is concave, whereas in the common coot it is convex]
A collateral result of the shortage of water wrought yet further havoc a the birds which had elected to remain, and accentuated the prescience of those that had departed Nesting-places, ordinarily islanded in mid-water, were now left stranded on dry land and thus open to the ravages of the whole fraternity of four-footed egg-devouring vermin Many species, we know, foresee such risks and invariably avoid them; others, less prudent, make the attempt and lose their labour The white-eyed pochards, for example, which are accustorasses, this year simply provided free breakfasts to rats and ichneus of these ducks to hatch-off under hens, but no sooner did a s than all were devoured! As to the coots, of which both the common and crested species breed in the ave it up as a bad business They did not depart, but resigned thereat and sracefulin solitude and silence arid wastes where before they had found aquatic Edens Once or te also noticed the s disconsolately over their lost homes A similar remark would apply to most of the other marsh-breeders--we need not recapitulate them all Stilts, for exale blessedness--the latter in noisy querulous bands, quite wild and showing no tendency to assule avocet's nest, where, in other years, we have found hundreds The same with the stilts--they also retained winter ways Curiously on May 17--one wet day--two ular set-to over an irresponsive fe we noticed all that spring!
[Illustration: AVOCETS FEEDING
Though long-legged, these are half-webfooted and swiht to have been the breeding-season, we had all these birds (andin one's ear, flying wild in great packs at 100 yards
How calected for a whole season, unfelt and unrecognised--as the precise psychological reason? It reads ridiculous to assume that any feathered husband should deliberately reree that it would be iht-struck season?” Nor could the neglect arise fro and wild Such specienerative organs disclosed a hybernal obsolescence One explanation--indeed a rough-and-ready diagnosis that seeiven by Vasquez Now Vasquez is our Guarda of the e of the wilderness and its wildfowl these thirty years and, h keeper perhaps understands the inner lives of wildfoith the causes that actuate their movements and habits, better than our best scientists, and Vasquez told us in February: ”This year no birds will breed here; the conditions necessary to _calientar los ovarios_ [literally, to war” The subsequent course of events, corroborated by the evidence of dissection, proved the correctness of his forecast
For a moment we return to the white-faced ducks--no European bird-forant With heavy, swollen beaks, quite disproportionate in size and pale waxy-blue in colour, hite heads, black necks, and rich chestnut bodies, their tiny wings (as well as the sheeny silken plu stiff tails like cormorants, and are more tenacious of the water than either of those To push theh impossible They seek safety in thethreats To-day, however (May 16), we needed speciuns, two mounted keepers, and an old boat that leaked like a sieve we eventually forced them to fly and secured three They flew entirely in packs (not pairs), rarely many feet above the surface, but with a speed little inferior to pochard or other diving-ducks
Dissection showed that in a feun to develop, there were no ripe ova, nor had the oviduct been used The _testes_ in both the , or thinking of doing so
A week earlier, however, at another lake of quite different forrowth (thirty ular waterfowl already nesting, and append a note of that day:--
[Illustration: WHITE-FACED DUCK (_Erismatura leucocephala_) See also p
28]
LAGUNA DE LAS TERAJES, _May 8_--A lonely lagoon hidden away in a saucer-shaped basin amidst sequestered downs; almost the entire extent (twenty acres) choked with dense cane-brakes and thick green reeds which stood six or eight feet above water We had driven hither, nine miles, across sandy heaths and pine-wood; and while breakfasting on the shore our two canoes (carted here yesterday) were got afloat Meanwhile, on a patch of open water we had observed several white-faced ducks swi stiff tails cocked upright at intervals, together with sorebes; while marsh-harriers slowly quartered the brakes and the reed-beds rang with the harsh nasal notes of the great sedge-warbler On pushi+ng out into the aquatic jungle ahead--no light labour with five feet of water encule of forrowths--we soon fell in with nests of all the species above mentioned and several more Those of the white-faced ducks consisted, first, of a big floating platform of broken canes, upon which was piled afors and reeds alone None of the ducks' nests contained eggs; probably the season was too early (in other years we have found their great white eggs, rough-grained, about the third week in May), but possibly the harriers had forestalled us, as we found one egg floating alongside The grebes were just beginning to lay; their nests, coe, all awash and s Next we found two nests of h, supported on floating canes and lined with sticks, heather-stalks, and pals, chipping, and two se black eyes The harriers' eggs are usually dull white; in one nest found this year, however, the eggs were spotted with pale red--apparently blood-stains Hard by were two nests of the purple water-hen, both of which had obviously been recently robbed by the harriers next door
These curious birds cli four or five at once in their long, supple, heavily clawed toes; then with their powerful red beaks neatly cut down the reeds a yard or more above water, in order to feed on the tender pith Here and there float masses of these cut-down reeds, split and emptied--_comederos_, the natives call such spots But the birds are silly enough to cut down the very reeds that surround their nests--thus exposing the huge piled-up structures to the gaze of their truculent neighbour, the egg-loving ree ht at least retaliate, by watching their opportunity andThey are areat pincer-like beaks fit to cut barbed wire!
On the other hand, the great purple water-hens habitually do a bit robbery andthe nests both of ducks and coots and devouring eggs or young alike We shot one whose beak was smeared all over with yolk froside the nest of a _Porphyrio_ with five eggs (found May 1) lay floating the head-less corpses of two young coots We have also observed siside the nests of the coots thes of the purple water-hen are lovely objects, ruddier and eners These birds remain in the marismas all winter
In the densest brake bred purple herons, but this part proved quite impenetrable to canoes A few days later, however, at the Retuerta, we reached a little colony of three nests A beautiful sight they presented, broad platforms of criss-crossed canes, cleverly supported on tall ba tops of _carrizos_ (canes)
These three nests were close together (another or two hard by), were about five feet above water-level, and contained three, three, and four pale-blue eggs While circling around their nests, the old herons showed a conspicuous projection beneath their curved necks We therefore shot one and found the effect was caused by a curious ”kink” or bony process on the front of the upper neck--as sketched
Of other birds observed at this Laguna de Terajes may be noted a few mallard and ), common sandpipers (on May 8), and a party of whiskered terns which arrived while ere there
The day we had spent aoon happened to be the day of the general election and the usual excitement prevailed Yet, as we journeyed down by the early train, we had read in the ”