42. Unexplored Spain 



Australia and New Zealand, and are now returning to their 

 summer breeding-grounds in farthest Siberia, beyond the Yenisei. 

 Thus some morning in early May one sees the marismas filled 

 with godwits and knots, curlew-sandpipers and grey plovers, all 

 in their glorious summer-plumage. But these only tarry here a 

 few days. A short week before they had thronged the shores of 

 the southern hemisphere — far beyond the zodiac of Capricorn. A 

 week hence and they are at home in the Arctic. 



Andalucia possesses a feathered census that approaches 400 

 species ; but of these hardly a score are permanently resident 

 throughout the year. 



f^^r^. 



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"GLOBE -SPANNERS" 



Rest twelve hours in Spain ou the journey — Australia to Siberia. 



Four-footed creatures are less difficult of diagnosis than are 

 birds. By nature less mobile, they are infinitely less numerous 

 specifically. Relatively the Spanish census is long, and includes, 

 locally, quite a number of interesting beasts that are " lumped 

 together" as Alimanas — to wit, lynxes, wild-cats, genets, mon- 

 goose, foxes, otters, badgers, of which we treat separately. The 

 two chief game-animals of the Goto Dofiana are the red deer and 

 the wild-boar. These two we here examine from the sportsman's 

 point of view as much as from that of the naturalist. 



The Spanish red deer are specifically identical with those of 

 Scotland and the rest of Europe, and are distributed over the 

 whole southern half of the Iberian Peninsula — say south of a line 

 drawn through Madrid. Their haunts, as a rule, are restricted to 

 the mountain-ranges — especially the Sierra Morena, where they 



