446 Mr. A. Chapman — Winter Notes in Spain. 



which rose from a patch of rushes adjoining the marsh. The 

 Geese are rather later in appearing ; it is mid-November 

 before the bulk of them are due. 



The " marismas " of Southern Spain are the winter home of 

 very great quantities of wild-fowl; probably nowhere in Europe 

 can natural conditions be found more congenial to their re- 

 quirements than the vast shallow watery wildernesses which 

 stretch along the Lower Guadalquivir. There, amidst abun- 

 dant plant and insect-food, the Ducks and Geese can pass the 

 colder months in comparative security ; and the hope of inves- 

 tigating the winter conditions of bird-life in these regions was 

 one of the chief motives of my last journey — marred, unluckily, 

 by the very wet season. For more than a fortnight in De- 

 cember the rain was incessant, obliterating all traces of roads 

 or rivers, reducing the whole country to a swamp, and the 

 valleys and low-lying lands to sheets of standing water. 

 Our first glance showed the hopelessness of expecting to do 

 much good with the wild-fowl, for the delta of the Guadal- 

 quivir was a vast inland sea of tawny water, extending to 

 the horizon along the whole length of the Goto de Donana 

 and Goto del Rey. Yet, unfavourable as the season was, at 

 times the massed bird-life was marvellous, considering 

 that the fowl were scattered over some twenty leagues 

 of unbroken water. In dry seasons, when they are restricted 

 to such pools as then remain, it is not uncommon to see 

 even the larger sheets of water, such as the Lagunas de 

 Santa Olaya, packed with such swarms of Ducks, Divers, 

 and Grebes of various kinds, as literally to hide the surface 

 of the lake ; but under the adverse conditions of last winter, 

 much hard work was necessary to form any acquaintance 

 with the fowl, among which we spent some long days and 

 nights. So far as our observations went, I would give the 

 first place, as regards numbers, to the Pintails [Dajila acuta) 

 — " rabudos " in Spanish ; but the Wigeon [Mareca penelope) 

 were not far behind, both these species being seen in thousands 

 daily. Next in abundance would come Teal [Querquediila 

 crecca) and Shovellers [Spatula clypeata), for the Mallards 

 [Anas boscas), though common enough, were not in any- 



