Scrub and Wood. 87 



IV. Scrub and Wood. 



A WOODED portion of the mansmas w&s briefly referred 



f\ to in my last article (Knowledge, August 1899), and 



as this part of the country is interesting from several 



points of view, a more detailed description of it and of its 



wild inhabitants may prove acceptable. 



Our first day's work in this scrub and wood was as novel 

 to us as had been our first day's stalking behind the cabestro. 

 We were fortunate in having as headquarters a large 

 rambling old house, from which we set out accompanied 

 by two keepers and a boy, all on horseback — an imposing 

 cavalcade, surely, for a bird-nesting expedition. But to 

 have a smaller escort in Spain would be considered infra 

 dig, while to walk when there are horses to ride would be 

 altogether out of the question. We were loth to depart 

 from the customs of the country, and, therefore, consented 

 to this arrangement. As we rode in single file along 

 narrow pathways, through a growth of tamarisk, gorse 

 and other plants, as high as our horses' heads, and, in 

 many places, quite impenetrable, or as we spread out in 

 different directions to search for birds' nests, we began to 

 understand the advantage of the Spanish system of bird- 

 nesting. From horseback we could see over the high cover, 

 and so guide our way to the most likely looking spots. 



