Birds of Southern Spain. 395 



collected, and of which I gave a resume on exhibiting some of 

 the eggs at a meeting of the Zoological Society; but a well- 

 known ornithologist pooh-poohed the idea of such a position, 

 preferring the notion of the bird's sitting with its legs doubled 

 underneath it — because, forsooth, to his mind, the latter position 

 would be more comfortable. Eggs taken in 1865, which I ob- 

 tained through the kindness of some Spanish friends, are larger 

 than, but otherwise similar to, those of a Gannet (but on 

 scraping away the chalky surface, the shell is greenish), and in 

 shape more pointed at one end. 



An excellent observer at Malaga assured me that, amongst 

 the many Flamingos he had seen from the salt lake of Fuente- 

 piedra, much frequented by those birds, but where they do not 

 breed, he had occasionally observed a small one, 7-ed all over; 

 and on sending me the skin of a very rosy one, he observed, 

 "This bird is smallish and very rosy, but it is not the small 

 species of which I spoke to you, that being far more orange-red 

 (rojo anaranjado), whereas this is pink." I therefore fully ex- 

 pect to be able to exhibit some day a skin of P. erythrcBus, the 

 statement respecting this smaller ruddy Flamingo having been 

 fully confirmed on my visits to the lake in question by a native 

 hunter of its vicinity. 



Last year (1870) I again visited Spain, with the express 

 object of trying some other localities where it was possible this 

 bird might breed, having given instructions to my correspondents 

 in the south to telegraph the moment they found a nest in 

 their part of the country. I visited the unwholesome delta of 

 the Ebro, nothing there; then to Majorca, nothing there either; 

 but on my return I was assured that this bird sometimes 

 nested in the island of Iviza. I sent a man down to some of 

 the lakes in La Mancha with no better result, whilst I myself 

 set out to explore the lake of Gallocanta in Aragon, a very awk- 

 ward place to get at. Arrived there, I could find no signs of a 

 Flamingo, and all the herdsmen and inhabitants of that dreary 

 basin agreed that the " Gorrones,'' as they called them, though 

 abundant in winter, never had nested there. I could put 

 my finger on half a dozen places in the south where they really 

 have nested ; but until we have had several " anos de agua," 



