BIRD-LIFE OF THE SPANISH SPRING-TIME. 271 



group of wild-bred cattle ; and a little apart stood three or 

 four big bulls of the fighting breed : — -formidable beasts 

 that demand a wide berth. More shaggy cattle, knee- 

 deep in water, were dreamily ruminating, each form sur- 

 mounted by a white bird, the Buff-backed Heron — in 

 Spanish Agarrajmtosa or tick-eater — some apparently 

 asleep, others busily searching for prey. Nearer still, 

 among the islanded patches of sedge and carices, stalked a 

 pair of Little Egrets, their long, thin necks arched with 

 infinite grace, and heads poised to strike with deadly pre- 

 cision any darting larva or water-beetle they detect among 

 the floating weeds. 



The heron-tribe is strongly represented in Andalucia ; 

 in spring and summer almost every European form 

 adorns these remote and marshy regions. During Ma}^ 

 the Buff-backed Herons were flying all over the plains in 

 packs of a score to fifty or more, apparently in quest of a 

 settlement ; the pretty little Squacco Herons had then 

 shifted their quarters from the marisma to the rushy 

 lagoons, and many nests were ready for eggs in the 

 juncales ; but all this group breed late, none laying much 

 before June. 



Since we first visited these regions, now nearly twenty 

 years ago, a sad diminution has taken place in the 

 numbers of these beautiful Herons and Egrets, due in 

 great measure to the cruel and thoughtless fashion of 

 wearing their plumes in ladies' hats. Let ladies humanely 

 remember that these plumes are only attained in the nesting 

 season, when to kill the male means the sacrifice of a 

 whole family. Fortunately there remain sequestered nooks, 

 sacred as yet to wild nature. Both in the neighbourhood 

 of Almonte and in certain marshy regions of vast cane- 

 brake and wooded swamp on the Estremenian border, there 

 survive unknown and unmolested colonies of these graceful 

 creatures, where for many a year to come the Egrets, Buff- 

 backed and Squacco Herons, the Night-Heron and Little 

 Bittern, Spoonbill, Glossy Ibis and other " rare birds " 

 may yet find a sanctuary protected by natural fastnesses, 

 and by legions of leeches and mosquitoes that render 



