4O SOME BIRDS OF THE CANARY ISLANDS 



married and settled in homes of their own. There 

 was a brother of Don Ramon's, who often came in, 

 though he did not live with them. He was a white- 

 bearded old fellow, and used to be very amusing ; he 

 would have it that I understood what they said when 

 they were talking among themselves, and would laugh 

 and say, Entiende., entiende, notwithstanding my pro- 

 tests to the contrary. 



I must now pass on to our doings after our arrival 

 at Tuineje. The country around was much the same 

 as we had previously seen, except that here we met 

 with but little wheat in comparison with what there 

 was at La Oliva ; nor did they appear to have had the 

 rains of the preceding few days. The only verdure to 

 be seen as a rule was the ajulaga shrub, which was 

 sprinkled here and there in districts, but never seemed 

 to grow to more than about a foot in height ; there 

 were many small snails on it, on which the Houbaras 

 are said to feed. 



For three days we hunted without success, save 

 finding a Stone-Curlew's nest, a photograph of which I 

 reproduce here, so that on the third day, that being the 

 day before the weekly boat left for Grand Canary, I had 

 decided to go back to Tenerife. The peasants said that 

 the birds were not breeding this year, as it had been too 

 dry, or that they were not here, and so on, and it really 

 looked as though there were some truth in their 

 remarks, as we had seen few Coursers, and only one or 

 two Houbaras. So, as the boat left Puerto Cabras at 

 eight o'clock in the evening, and Don Ramon had sent 

 out a large number of people to search for nests on 

 the previous day without success, eight o'clock in the 



