Part 47 (1/1)

Some are approached by a sort of tunnel Exceptionally we have seen a nest built a foot high in the branches of a sa shalloater The eggs, laid at the end of May, vary from twelve to fourteen, and in one instance twenty--possibly the produce of two females We find these the most difficult of all the ducks to rear in confinement Probably their food is quite different, anyway they are very bad eating

Marbled ducks are unknown at Daimiel

SHOVELERS (_Spatula clypeata_) only breed exceptionally and in wet seasons; we found one nest at Las Nuevas in 1908 Though abundant in winter, does not breed at Daiula nyroca_), like all the diving tribe, breed only on deep and permanent lakes, such as those of Medina and Daimiel, where they abound all suely dry Nests, ula ferina_)--Though we have not found it ourselves, one of our fowlers (Machachado) tells us that pochards breed on the lakes, and even s--five to seven

RED-CRESTED POCHARD (_Fuligula rufila_)--This is the characteristic breeding-duck at Daimiel in La Mancha, as well as on the Albufera of Valencia, at both of which points it abounds Yet curiously it is all but unknown on the Baeticanthe thousands of ducks we have shot therein, but a single exaures--a feula cristata_)--None reh abundant in winter

WHITE-FACED DUCK (_Erismatura leucocephala_)--This species, known as _Ba and breeds cooon in Andalucia

SHELDUCKS (_Tadorna cornuta_), we are assured (though this we have not proved), breed in the marisma in hollows (_hoyos_)--such as the cavernous footprints made by cattle in the soft mud in winter Common in dry winters

RUDDY SHELDUCK (_Tadorna casarca_)--These are seen here all su-places They are coust and Septeht and clear-toned ringing cry--_H[=a][=a]-[)a][)a]_--thrice repeated

WAGTAILS

PIED WAGTAIL (_Motacilla lugubris_)--This familiar British species occurs rarely in S Spain--we have but four records, all in winter In the reverse, the WHITE WAGTAIL (_M alba_) abounds--ploughed lands sorey_ with it; and it is here, in winter, as tame and familiar as one sees it in Norway and Iceland in summer Yet midway between the two, _ie_ in the British Isles, we have seen it but thrice! There it may indeed be termed a ”rare bird” The explanation seetails are not specifically distinct, but merely a ditail breeding co a northerly hurricane on February 7, 1903, we observed an assetails on the barren sand-dunes of Majada Real--a second crowd, as nu bands arrested by the gale This is merely one exaical apparition of birds froe of wind Specially notable, besides wagtails, are sheatears, pipits and larks

The GREY WAGTAIL (_M h occasionally seen in winter, is most conspicuous about mid-February, when it passes several days on our lawn at Jerez It has not then acquired the black throat of spring; but twoon mountain-burns of the sierras--precisely such situations as it frequents a the Northumbrian moors

The YELLOW WAGTAIL (_M flava_; the Continental form, _cinereocapilla_) appears on the laeek or so after the grey species has disappeared; but this re in wetthe last week of April

The British for, but rarely and on passage only, none re to nest

RESTRICTED DISTRIBUTION

ROOK (_Corvus frugilegus_)--There is a certain liue or so, on the foreshores of the marisma--whither each winter come a few scores of rooks At that one spot, and nowhere else within our knowledge, are rooks to be found in southern Spain

MAGPIE (_Pica caudata_)--On the western bank of Guadalquivir this bird abounds to a degree we have seen surpassed nowhere else on earth But cross that river, and never another pie will you see for a hundred miles to the eastward For it the lower Baetis marks a frontier Over the rest of Spain its distribution is norood of the Jackdaw (_Corvus monedula_)

The AZURE-WINGED MAGPIE (_Cyanopica cooki_) abounds in central Spain and in the Sierra Morena But its southern range stops dead at the little village of Coria del Rio just below Sevilla 'Tis but a few miles beyond, yet in Donana we have never seen so le

From Spain (as elsewhere stated) you must travel to China and japan ere you see another azure-winged landarius_) in Spain confine the the lowland woods which in other lands form their home