74 



WILD SPAIN. 



we spent the first night, three or four Tufted Ducks, and a 

 pair of Pochards. I killed a single Scoter drake as late 

 as April 13th, and was shown as a curiosity a Cormorant 

 which had been killed by some fishermen on the river a 

 day or two before. 



One cannot go far into the marisma without seeing that 

 extraordinary fowl, the Flamingo, certainly the most 

 characteristic denizen of the wilderness. In herds of 

 300 to 500, several of which are often in sight at once, 

 they stand like regiments, feeding in the open water, all 



heads under, greedily tearing up the grasses and water- 

 plants that grow beneath the surface. On approaching 

 them, which can only be done by extreme caution, their 

 silence is first broken by the sentries, which commence 

 walking away with low croaks : then the whole five hundred 

 necks rise at once to full stretch, every bird gaggling his 

 loudest as they walk obliquely away, looking back over 

 their shoulders as though to take stock of the extent of the 

 danger. Shoving the punt a few yards forward, up they 

 all rise, and a more beautiful sight cannot be imagined 

 than the simultaneous spreading of their thousand crimson 



