266 



Unexplored Spain 



Ploward Saunders, ibid., 1869, and the same authority in the 

 Ibis, 1871, pp. 394 ei seq. 



The late Crown Prince Rudolph of Austria, who visited Spain 

 in May 1879, likewise failed to reach the nesting spot — apparently 

 throuorh the usual cause, not goinoj far enous^h — thouo^h a few 

 eggs were found scattered on the wet mud of the marisma. 

 (Recorded by Lord Lilford as above.) 



Thus the question remained unsettled till 1883, when a 

 favouring season enabled the present authors to succeed where 

 greater ornithologists had striven in vain. 



A venerable apologue attaches to the nesting habit of the 

 flamingo. Owing to the length of its legs, it was assumed that 



the bird could not incubate in the ordinary manner of birds, 

 and that, therefore, it stood astraddle on a nest built up to the 

 requisite height — a combination of unproved assumption with 

 inconsequential deduction. 'Twere ungracious to be wise after 

 the event, yet, in fact, this fable passed current as " Natural 

 History" for precisely two centuries — from 1683, when Dampier 

 so described the nesting of flamingoes on the Cape de Verde 

 Islands,^ till 1883, when the present authors had opportunity of 

 observing a flamingo-colony in southern Spain. 



Flamingoes do not nest every year in the Spanish marismas. 

 Their doing so depends on the season, and only in very wet years 

 is the attem})t made. Rarely, even then, are young liatched ofl', 

 so persistently are the wastes raided by egg-liftei's, who sweep up 

 by wholesale every edible thing, and to whom a " Flamingo 



^ Daiupier, Xew Voycuje round tlir, Jforld, '2nd ed., i. p. 71 ; London, 1691^'. 



