The Goto Donana 



39 



ever, is a characteristic of winter in all temperate lands. Birds 



at that season are apt to be 



silent and elusive, but their 



absence is apparent rather than 



real. 



All around you, in fact, 

 forest and jungle, scrub, sallow, 

 and bramble - brake abound 

 with minor bird-forms — with 

 our British summer visitors, 

 here settled down in tlieir 

 winter quarters ; with charm- 

 ing exotic warblers and silent 



o 



songsters — all off work for the 

 season. Where nodding bul- 

 rush fringes quaking bog, or 

 miles of tasselled cane-brakes 

 border the marsh, there is the 

 home of infinite feathered 

 amphibians, crakes and rails, of reed-climbers and bush-skulkers, 

 all for the nonce silent, shy, reclusive. 



"SILENT SONCiSTERS ■' 







-s 



BLACKSTART (RuticiUa titi/s) 

 Abuiulant in winter ; retires to the sierra to nest. 



Their portraits, roughly caught during hours of patient waiting, 



