The Marismas. 15 



very common in this district. One, the calandra lark," is 

 a veritable giant amongst lark?, being almost the size of a 

 soDg thrush. We nearly walked upon this bird before she 

 rose from her nest, and flew up with a tremendous flutter, 

 tumbling in her flight, and running along the ground in 

 front of us with trailing wings. The calandra has a bold, 

 bright song, uttered when the bird is on the wing, and, 

 like our skylark, it is given to imitating the notes of other 

 birds. A few steps away from the calandra's nest we 

 flushed a very small lark, which, unlike the calandra, rose 

 quietly from her nest and disappeared. This was the 

 Andalusian short-toed lark,t discovered by Lord Lilford 

 in 1872, and first described by Mr. H. E. Dresser in his 

 •' Birds of Europe." These little larks, which are very 

 numerous in the marismas, seem to be peculiar to this part 

 of the world. They do not soar like the calandra and the 

 skylark, but take short, upward flights, singing as they 

 go, and, returning to the ground or a low bush, finish 

 twittering there. We heard them imitate the notes of 

 many birds — such as stilts and redshanks. By the 8th 

 of April their nests were numerous. Those we found were 

 invariably built of dry grass and fine roots, lined with a 

 few feathers, and placed in a slight hollow in the ground, 

 often hidden by a tuft of grass or a small bush. The 

 only other diminutive bird that was at all common in this 

 scorched-up wilderness was a beautiful blue and yellow 

 wagtail — the blue headed wagtail.]: 



Many peewits § had their eggs or young amongst the grass, 

 and the efforts of the parents to drive off the birds of prey 

 afforded us constant amusement. They devoted their 

 energies chiefly to the kites. A kite comes swooping majes- 



* Melanocorypha calandra. t Calandrella boetica. 



J Moiacilla /lava § Vanelltis vidgaHs. 



