38 



Unexplored Spain 



(vaqueros) who tend the wikl-bred cattle and horses that in 

 semi-feral condition wander both in the regions of scrub and out 

 in the open marisma. Nomadic charcoal-burners squat in the 

 forests, shifting their reed - built wigwams (chozas) as the 

 exio-encies of work require ; while the gathering of pine-cones 

 yields a precarious living to a handful oi innoneros. Lastly, but 

 most important to us, there are the guardas or keepers, keen-eyed, 

 leather-clad, and sun-l)ronzed to the hue of Red Indians. There 

 are a dozen of these wild men distributed at salient points of the 

 Goto, most of them belonging to families which have held these 

 posts, sons succeeding fathers, for generations. Of three such 

 cycles we have ourselves already been witnesses. 



Briefly to summarise a rich and heterogeneous fauna is not 



easy ; a volume 

 might be devoted 

 to this region alone. 

 Elsewhere in this 

 book some few sub- 

 jects are treated in 

 detail. Here we 

 merely attempt an 

 outline sketch. 



Throuohout the 

 winter (excepting 

 only the wildfowl) there exists no such conspicuous ornithic 

 display as appeals to casual eye or ear — those, say, of the 

 average traveller. Ride far and wide through these wild land- 

 scapes in December or January, and you may wonder if their 

 oft-boasted wealth of bird-life be not exaooerated. You see, 

 perhaps, little beyond the ubiquitous birds-of-prey. These are 

 ever the first feature to strike a stranger. Great eagles, soaring 

 in eccentric circles, hunt the cistus-clad plain ; the wild scream 

 of the kite rings out above the pines, and shapely buzzards 

 adorn some dead tree. Over rush-girt bogs soar weird marsh- 

 harriers — three flaps and a drift as, with piercing sight, they 

 scan each tuft and miss not so much as a frog or a wounded 

 wigeon. All these and others of their race are naturally con- 

 spicuous. But, though unseen, there lurk all around other forms 

 of equal beauty and interest, abundant enough, but secretive 

 and apt to be overlooked save by closest scrutiny. That, how- 



MARSH- HARRIER {Circus aenKjinonns) 



