Bird Life in the Spanish Marismas 299 



of tlie smaller Owls — I think a Scops-owl. In tlie early 

 mornings tlie first sound to greet my ears was the familiar 

 chatter of Starlings. These, however, are not our English 

 Starling {StKniiis vulgcms), but the unspotted Sardinian 

 Starling {S. unicolor), which have a very glossy appearance in 

 the brioht sunshine ; otherwise their habits, nest, and cffg-s 

 seem to be identical with those of our well-known bird. 



Each morning we used to start off at about eight o'clock : 

 myself, the guarda-mayor, Augustin, and another guarda, 

 JNIaiuiele, on horseback, with Benitez 03i the mule — " el 

 mulo maldito," as he used to call it — in whose capacious 

 packs were stored away cameras, plates, water-bottles, 

 wine, food, and wading-trousers, together ^ith two large 

 baskets for eggs. 



It is impossible to get along without horses, and 

 it was a no^'el and not impleasant experience to go bird- 

 nesting thus mounted. Sometimes for miles Ave rode through 

 water from six inches to three feet deep. In the dry 

 plains the bushes were too thick and high to permit of our 

 penetrating far afoot. The bracken and heather grow to 

 a height unknown in p],ngland, and the numerous muddy 

 creeks and swamps would have been impassable without 

 horses. These are small, wiry, and unkempt-looking beasts, 

 on which one sits perched up high on a peaked Spanish 

 saddle covered with sheepskin, and provided with stirrups 

 like huge triangular iron boxes. The bits are cruel and very 

 powerful, and lune to be carefully used by strangers. ]My 

 horse would always go off full gallop every time the slightest 



