59G Mr. L. Griscom on the [Ibis. 



with Dr. Chalmers Mitchell crystallized anew this deteriiiiii- 

 ation ; and a week's leave o£ absence around Christmas of 

 1918 gave me the longed-for op|)ortunity. Stopijing long 

 enough in Paris to procure Cresj)on's book, I arrived at 

 Les Saiiites Maries the morning of 29 Dec, and remained 

 mitil the afternoon of 1 Jan., 1919. It was a somewhat 

 strenuous vacation, as the number of hours in the field each 

 day wa.s exactly the number of hours of daylight with a 

 liberal margin at each end for a oood start and a return. 

 The country within five miles of the village to the north and 

 east was thoroughly explored. On 31 Dec, 1 left the 

 village shortly after dawn in a two-wheeled wagon \\ith the 

 manager of a bull-farm about three miles west of" the centre 

 of the Etang de Valcares, where we arrived an hour later. 

 He was a local Provencal poet of note, and while my teeth 

 rattled in my head^ he favoured me with specimens of his 

 art, and it did not discourage him at all that I disclaimed any 

 knowledge of the language ! At the bull-farm I ciianged 

 ver}" thankfully to horseback, and we roile to the edge of 

 the Etang, where there was a farmer living in a picturesque 

 stone manse which his ancestors had built six centuries ago. 

 He became my guide to the haunts of the Flamingo and the 

 islands at the south end of the Etang de Valcares. It was a 

 great disappointment to miss this famous bird, whose iem- 

 porax'y absence was accounted for by the natives as due to 

 the low water caused by a long drought. In every other 

 respect, however, the day was one of the most eventful 

 ornithologically I have ever had. Not the least interesting 

 part of the day was the return af fer dark. The owner of the 

 horse assured me that its home was Les Saintes Maries, 

 and that it would get there without any assistance from me. 

 It did. We started about 8 p.m. without a moon, with not 

 even a track or a bridle-[)ath tlie first two-thirds of the way. 

 The only sign of life wiis a lighthouse twenty-five miles to 

 the south-west. The wind sighed over the plains, an occa- 

 sional flock of Geese honked overhead, or a Lapwing com- 

 plained at our approach. Even the horse seemed to feel 

 the loneliness, as it would occasionally stop, look round, 



