BIRD-LIFE OF THE SPANISH SPRING-TIME. 247 



rufiis) scold ill every bush, and various Finches and 

 Woodpeckers, Tits and Creepers, enhven the woodlands, 

 and sprightly Paifous Warblers the drier plain. Among 

 the cane-brakes and carices that fringe the marshy 

 hollows skulk several other warblers — the Great Sedge 

 and Black-headed Warblers (<S'. anindinacea and mdano- 

 cephala), Orphean, Cetti's, and the little Fantail, besides 

 our familiar Willow- Wrens, Chiffchaffs, Blackcaps, Pied- 

 starts and Eobins — ^the latter resident, and very bright 

 in colour. The Black Eedstart has already disappeared 

 (April), but from da,y to da}' one sees our British migrants 

 arriving, resting, or passing forward on their northern 

 journey. Swallows especially are conspicuous : to-day the 

 air is alive with them, sweeping along the open glades : 

 to-night they roost in chattering hosts in the trees around 

 our camp — to-morrow they are gone, not a swallow 

 remains : and this occurs a dozen times during April and 

 May. 



On April 13th and two following days there occurred a 

 conspicuous " through transit " of Pied Flycatchers, and two 

 days later (in another year) the brushwood was alive with 

 Redstarts, all on passage. On the 25th we were visited for 

 a couple of hours by hundreds of Alpine Swifts : and the 

 same evening the large Eed-necked Nightjars (C ruficollis) 

 arrived, to add their churring note to the crepuscular 

 chorus of frogs and night-birds for the rest of the spring 

 and summer. One evening in May, while watching a pair 

 of Golden Orioles to their nest, I witnessed a rather curious 

 eviction. A Spanish Green Woodpecker (Gecuius s]iar])ii), 

 her gullet crammed with ants, flew to a hole in a wild- 

 olive, but was met at the entrance by a furious Little Owl 

 {Atlioic uoctua), Avhich soon drove the clumsier bird 

 (which had no idea of self-defence) screaming to the 

 shelter of some brushwood. Soon after, her mate returned, 

 but met with a similar reception, the savage little owl 

 perchmg meanwhile on an adjacent branch, where he sat 

 bolt upright, all fluffed out, and snapping with rage. On 

 examining the place, I found the woodpeckers had a 

 numerous family, nearh- read}^ to fly : while the owl had 



