84 Mr. A. Cliapman's Rough Notes 



several packs of Sand-Grouse {Pterocles al chat a) , which species 

 arrives in Spain late in April ; tliey are very wild birds, 

 flying something like Teal and uttering a loud harsh croak. 

 After much manoeuvring on the fiat marsh, I obtained several 

 beautiful specimens of both sexes. No bird, I think, equals 

 this species in the exquisite delicacy of the pencilling and 

 the harmonious disposition of colours in its plumage. Their 

 eye-circles and eyelids are of a beautiful ultramarine blue. 

 Their summer plumage difitrs considerably from that of 

 winter, as represented in " Bree,"^ principally as follows : — 

 In the male the throat is black, and a line of that colour 

 passes through the eye to the ear. The head and neck are 

 plain, i. e. unspotted, but the brownish-green back is covered 

 with large yellow spots, some of which extend to the ter- 

 tiaries. The female has the head spotted above the black 

 line through the eye ; below that the throat and cheeks are 

 plain yellow. Her back plumage is so beautifully variegated 

 as almost to defy description ; briefly it is finely barred with 

 yellow and black of various shades, but this is relieved by 

 broad bars of a pale clear blue. Their name is hardly ap- 

 propriate, for I never saw them on the sand, always on the 

 mud, and when shot their feet and bills are generally covered 

 with it. The larger species (P. arenar'ms) I did not meet 

 with, though it is well known as '^Corteza;" the present bird 

 being called '' Ganga," signifying a bargain, in reference to 

 its edible qualities. 



After heavy rains in April the mud and water in the 

 marisma were unpleasantly deep for locomotion, and on the 

 low islands many thousands of eggs had been destroyed by 

 the rising of the water. A great variety of birds were now 

 breeding, Stilts and Avocets being perhaps the most conspi- 

 cuous : I found a few of their eggs to-day (May 5th), but a few 

 days later they were in thousands. The Stilts make a 

 tolerably solid nest of dead stalks, and lay four eggs, neatly 

 arranged, points inwards'^. The Avocet's eggs are larger and 



* Several young Stilts obtained in the middle of June were mottled 

 brown above. Legs of medium length, much thicker than those of 

 the adults, especially about the knee, and pale brownish or clay-colour. 



