BIKD-LIFE OF THE SPANISH SPKING-TIME. 269 



green, some blue, others of a soft rose-colour, a few pure 

 white. The elaborate wa^' in which the nest itself is 

 compacted of intertwined grasses and laced on to a tuft of 

 rush is no less remarkable. Its Spanish name is 

 Bolsinni — a little purse, and the species remains all the 

 winter. Among the tall cances, floating in about three 

 feet of water, was the nest of the Marsh-Harrier : it re- 

 sembled that of a Coot, and had, perhaps, been built 

 originally by that bird, many of which bred there. 



While driving the ducks, five birds of peculiar appearance 

 flew over — they were Glossy Ibis, and passed within shot 

 of Felipe, who, however, failed to stop them. This was the 

 only instance of our meeting with the Ibis — a singular 

 circumstance, as in wet seasons they nest in numbers 

 in the upper marisma. Their deep blue eggs have 

 several times been brought to us while bustard-shooting on 

 the Isla Menor, &c., the boys who brought them saying the 

 nests were in the thick canas, and not on low trees, where 

 the small herons Ijreed. Very curiously, in all the time 

 we spent in the marisma, we never again saw this bird 

 in spring, or found a single nest ourselves. 



A ride of a few miles from Zopiton across the sandy 

 heath-land brings us to the larger lagunas de Santo- 

 lalla, where numerous wildfowl assemble in spring. 

 Besides Mallards, Gadwalls, and Ferruginous Ducks, 

 already described, were many Pintails, Garganeys, Teal, and 

 the pretty Marbled Duck — {Querqiicdida marmorata). The 

 latter nests at Santolalla at the end of May : but more 

 numerously in the open marisma, laying ten or twelve 

 eggs, well hidden among the clumps of samphire. Some 

 of the Pintails (which are the most abundant of the winter 

 wildfowl) linger late in spring : for on May 8th we 

 observed a " bunch" of a dozen or so at Santolalla, all 

 drakes, their snow-white throats glistening in the sunshine. 

 Near theili a pair of Shoveller drakes were swimming, 

 and presently the binocular rested on six of the most 

 extraordinary wildfowl we ever met with — gambolling and 

 splashing about on the water, chasing each other, now 

 above now beneath its surface like a school of porpoises, 



