322 Pictures of Bird Life 



over tlie shining surface of the tidal ooze. \\e noticed 

 that they constantly hop about on one leg, as if lame. 



Until the close of our stay there appeared to be no 

 indications of their having begun to nest. In fact, not 

 before INIay 1.5th, the very last day I set foot in Spain, 

 did we find any of their eggs ; and then it was quite at 

 the end of a long day's search that Benitez called out to 

 nie that he had at last found a nest. There were altogether, 

 in this spot of quite a limited area, about a dozen nests. 

 Most of them were made of the beautiful rosy feathers of 

 the Flamingoes. A large flock of these birds had been 

 feeding close to the spot, and numbers of their feathers 

 were lying about and floating on the water. This beautiful 

 and unique nesting material gave them a very striking and 

 effective appearance. 



Only one nest contained four eggs, which was the 

 usual clutch in the Dutch nests ; the rest of them iield 

 but three. The eggs are somewhat larger than those of 

 the Stilt and Redshank, and are of a duller clay colour. 

 Numbers of the birds were wading in every direction, but 

 were not so easy of approach as those on the ri^'er-banks, 

 and I did not do much good with them. 



The Flamino'oes we had seen in the morninef ; but these 

 long-legged and long-necked fowl are exceedingly difficult 

 to approach. AVading slowly, in a crouching attitude, and 

 holding the muffled camera in front, so as to appear as little 

 human as possible, I found it a matter of difficidty to get 

 within two hundred yards of their ranks. Any attempt to 



