83 



CHAPTER yil. 

 THE B^TICAN WILDERNESS. 



SPRING NOTES OF BIRD-LIFE AND NATURAL HISTORY IN THE 



MARISMA. 



Part II. — May. 



On a bright May morning 

 we set out for a fortnight's 

 sojourn in the western ma- 

 rismas. For the last few 

 miles the route lies through 

 broken woodlands, all wrapt 

 in the glory of the southern 

 spring-time. There is no 

 n.,^i,n Is-ck of verdure here at 

 i^'-' " mid- winter — not even the 

 deciduous trees are ever 

 really bare : but in May the 

 whole plant-world is fresh- 

 clad in brightest garb and 

 beauty — it is worth stay- 

 ing a moment to examine such prodigal luxuriance. 

 Before us, for example, is a grove of stone-pines, embedded 

 to their centres amidst dark green thicket ; through the 

 massed foliage of lentiscus and briar shoots up a forest of 

 waving bamboos, tall almost and straight as the pines 

 themselves ; the foreground filled with the delicate mauve 

 of rosemary, with giant heather and heaths of a dozen 

 hues, all wrestling for space, with clumps of pampas-grass 

 and palmetto, genista, butcher's-broom, and wild fennel. 



G 2 



