on Spanish Ornithology. 85 



lighter in colour than those of the Stilts^ and, except when 

 among grass, they seldom have any nest at all, merely laying 

 at random on the bare cracked mud, often 2 or 3 inches 

 apart. Some of the Avocets^ nests had four eggs ; but as 

 several of the others contained five, or even six, it was ob- 

 vious that these were the produce of more than one bird. 

 In the great majority of cases three was the number. In 

 neither of these species is any concealment attempted, 

 whereas the Redshank habituall}^ chooses the centre of the 

 thickest tuft of grass or bog-plant available. Peewits also 

 breed very numerously on the islands of the marisma, but 

 are much earlier : I found their eggs early in April, and 

 on the 9th of May they were hatching, most nests having one 

 or more young birds out, the other eggs chipping. Scattered 

 about on the dry miid were numerous clutches of four small 

 eggs, belonging to two other species, the Kentish Plover and 

 the Lesser Ring-Dotterel ; the latter were the less numerous 

 of the two, and were just beginning to lay, choosing the 

 gravelly ridges of the islands. The Kentish Plover is an 

 earlier breeder, many of their eggs being hard-set May 5th. 

 I had previously found a nest of this species as early as 14th 

 April, containing three of the most strongly marked eggs I 

 have ever seen. They make perhaps rather more attempt at a 

 nest than the former species ; but there is not much to choose 

 between them, and I frequently noticed the eggs of both 

 these and other species laid in a slight hollow scratched in 

 the dried remains of cattle-droppings. On these islands 

 were many nests of the Spanish Short-toed Lark [Calendrella 

 batica), artlessly built of grass, and placed in small holes, 

 like a Dunlin^s, sometimes among thistles, as often on bare 

 ground without cover. They were only commencing to lay 

 on May 9th, most nests then containing one egg. 



May 9th. While blowing and numbering eggs on a small 

 island which was literally covered with Avocets^ nests, my 

 cazador Felipe, whom I had sent to explore another small 

 island close at hand, came up Avith five eggs, which he said 

 he thought must be Gull's. I saw at a glance he was right; 

 and jumping up espied, among the clamorous crowd of 



