56 BIRD-HUNTING 



considerable height — quite ten feet — while the nest 

 of a Blackcap was thirty feet up a tree. This looks 

 as if these birds had been driven to nest in higher 

 situations on account of some danger likely to be 

 met with in more lowly sites. The abundance of 

 large snakes and lizards, both with very carnivorous 

 tastes, is no doubt a factor to be reckoned with by 

 small birds in making their domestic arrangements. 

 As these huge lizards think nothing of swallowing 

 whole a half-grown rabbit (vide Chapman's Wild 

 Spain), a brood of young birds would not be at all 

 safe on or near the ground. 



While we were in the desolate marismas, far re- 

 moved from any of the luxuries of life, my friend fell 

 ill. There was no doctor anywhere available, and I 

 had to turn doctor for the occasion. As he was in 

 great pain, with internal inflammation, hot flannels 

 seemed to be desirable ; and failing anything else 

 more suitable, a flannel shirt was wrung out of boiling 

 water, and in this the patient was packed, while hot- 

 water bottles were improvised out of wine-bottles 

 wrapped up in a focusing-cloth. A day or two of 

 this treatment proved very beneficial, but then the 

 difficulty arose about feeding him. Luckily, our 

 stores contained one tin of cocoa, and as we could 

 get no meat, except by shooting for the pot, Benitez, 

 the Spanish keeper, who acted as our factotum and 

 handy man, was dispatched to shoot some Turtle 



