96 Unexplored Spain 



from water ; hence each man luid to hide as best he could, 

 pro^itrate liehind rush-tuft or twelve-inch samphire. 



This morning, however, the greylags Hew wide and scattered, 

 in strange contrast with their customary regularity. We noticed 

 the change, but knew not the cause. The geese did. The 

 barometer during the night (unnoticed by us at 4 a.m.) had 

 crone down half an inch, and already, as we assembled for breakfast 

 at ten o'clock, rain was beginning to fall — the first rain since the 

 spring! The wind, which for weeks had remained " nailed to the 

 North — norte clavado," in Spanish phrase — flew to all airts, and 

 a chanoe was at hand. By eleven there burst what the Spanish 



\'' 





POCHARD {FuHgvIa ferina) 



well name a tormenta ; lightning Hashed from a darkened sky, 

 while thunder rolled overhead, and rain drove horizontal on 

 a livingf hurricane. An hour later the heavens cleared, and the 

 sun was shining as before. That short and sudden storm, how- 

 ever, had marked an epoch. The whole conditions of bird-life in 

 the marisma had been revolutionised within a couple of hours. 



In other years, under such conditions as this morning had 

 promised, we have records of sixty and eighty greylags brought 

 to bag, and it was with such anticipation that we had set out 

 to-day. The result totalled but a quarter of such numbers. 



Ducks came next in our programme, and the writer, being 

 the last gun by lot, had several miles to ride to his remote post 

 at El Hondon. The scenes in bird-life through which we rode 



