272 Unexplored Spain 



Science is impersonal, the impulsion of a naturalist springs 

 from devotion to his subject, and from no extrinsic motive 

 — such as personal kudos. Nevertheless, we make this categoric 

 claim for ourselves simply because the credit, quantum valeat, 

 has since been (not claimed straight away, but rather) insinuated 

 on behalf of others who didn't earn it — analogous with the case 

 of Dr. Cook and the North Pole. 



Where do these thousands of Spanish flamingoes Ijreed, and 

 how do they maintain their numbers, when Spain, three years out 

 of five, is too dry for nesting purposes ? The only obvious answer 

 is, Africa. And, though incapable yet of direct proof, that answer 

 is clearly correct. For flamingoes are essentially denizens of the 

 tropic zone. The few that ever overlap into southern Europe are but 

 a fraction of their swarming millions farther south. During our 

 own expeditions into British East Africa, we found flamingoes in 

 vast abundance on all the equatorial lakes we visited — Baringo, 

 Nakuru, Elmenteita, Naivasha, and, especially, Lake Hannington, 

 where, during past ages, they have so polluted the foreshores as 

 to preclude human occupation. These were the same flamingoes, 

 a few of which " slop over " into Europe ; we shot two specimens 

 with the rifle in Nakuru to prove that.' 



Flamingoes are not migratory in an ordinary sense — birds 

 born on the equator seldom are. Their movements have no 

 seasonal character, but depend on the rainfall and the varying 

 condition of the lagoons at different points within their range. 

 Here, in Spain, we see them coming and going, to and fro, at all 

 seasons according to the state of the marisma — and a striking 

 colour-study they present when pink battalions contrast with 

 dark-o-reen pine beneath and set off by deepest azure above. 



In 1907 flamingoes attempted to establish a nesting-colony 

 at a spot called Las Albacias in the marisma of Hiiiojos. A 

 mass of nests w\as already half built, then suddenly abandoned. 

 " If the shadow of a cloud passes over them, they forsake," say 

 the herdsmen of the wilderness. 



Quantities of drift grass and weed are always found floating 

 where a herd has been feeding, which at first led us to suppose 

 that their food consisted of water-plants (as with geese), but 



1 We also observed in Equatoria a second species, smaller and red all over, Phoenicoptcriis 

 minor. This, however, was far less numerous ; the great bulk of East-African flamingoes 

 were the common Fh. roseus. 



