Water-tortoises and Snakes 9 
on 
sportsman who may lose a wounded duck overnight. Both they 
and a huge water-beetle (Yydzcus) make short work of anything 
they have a mind to devour. 
As you work your way forward towards the big reed-beds from 
time to time, Mallard and, more seldom, Wild Duck spring from the 
reeds, but this is no place to look for their nests which are hidden 
amid the standing corn or asphodel-covered hill-sides miles away. 
I have often come upon Wild Ducks’ nests when riding across 
the hills in quest of Bustards and it is ever a marvel how they 
manage to conduct their tiny atoms of newly hatched ducklings 
across the long stretch of hard dry ground alive with vermin of all 
sorts, both four-footed and winged, besides predaceous snakes and 
lizards, to the desired sanctuary of some reed-grown laguna. Tew 
friendly streams lead to the marshes below, for in Spain in the 
spring months most of the smaller streams are either dry or merely 
a succession of pools with steep vertical sides, ill-adapted as 
channels of communication for such puny birds. The Spaniards 
aver that the Wild Duck carries her young from the far distant 
nests to the laguna on her back. 
Now and again you come upon masses of decaying reeds above 
the general surface of the water, and here you sce many snakes 
basking in the sun, sometimes a dozen together. These are the 
Viperine Grass Snake (7vopedonotus viperinus) and are well named, 
for although harmless, like the Common Grass Snake, in size, build, 
flatness and breadth of head and zig zag markings down the back, 
they bear a remarkable superficial resemblance to the poisonous 
Viper (Vepera latastt). 
Gradually the water deepens and the reed-beds become denser 
and taller until you arrive at the great tract of bulrush which 
forms the sanctuary for so many birds. Considering the number 
of Purple Herons (Ardea purpurea) which nest in these marshes it 
is curious how little one sees of them and how easy it is to miss 
