384 Unexplored Spain 



Spain before, not even in winter. This was at the Hondon. A 

 similar phenomenon was observed with the white-faced ducks. 

 These curious creatures also remained in packs, and without sign 

 of pairing, on the open waters of Santolalla — open only because 

 aquatic plants had forborne to grow. In normal seasons these 

 lakes are studded with great cane-brakes and islanded reed-jungles, 

 within whose recesses these amphibians build their floating homes. 

 This spring not a reed had grown — partly owing to cattle having 

 destroyed the earlier shoots which are usually protected by deep 

 water. There was literally no covert within which these ducks 

 (and the swarming coots and grebes) could breed, even were they 

 so minded — which they were not ! 



The only ducks that had paired in earnest \vere gadwall, gar- 



ganey, common and white-eyed 

 pochard (of which the first 

 three nest here in very limited 

 numbers), together with 

 normal quantities of mallard. 

 A collateral result of the 

 \ shortage of water wrought yet 

 further havoc among the birds 



HEAD OF CRESTED COOT ^^^-^j^ ^^^^^ ^j^^^^^ ^^ ^,^^^.^^ 



The frontal plate j^^^^^^^JJ^jjJ^^^'^^^ '" ^'^e common ^^^^ aCCCntuatcd thc prCScicnCC 



of those that had departed. 

 Nesting-places, ordinarily islanded in mid-water, were now left 

 stranded on dry land and thus open to the ravages of the whole 

 fraternity of four-footed egg-devouring vermin. Many species, 

 we know, foresee such risks and invariably avoid them ; others, 

 less prudent, make the attempt and lose their labour. The white- 

 eyed pochards, for example, which are accustomed to nest in 

 islanded clumps of rush and dense aquatic grasses, this year 

 simply provided free breakfasts to rats and ichneumons ! AVe 

 happened to require two or three settings of these ducks to 

 hatch-off" under hens, but no sooner did a marked nest contain 

 three or four eggs than all w^ere devoured ! As to the coots, of 

 which both the common and crested species breed in the marisma 

 in myriads, they simply gave it up as a bad business. They did 

 not depart, but resigned themselves to the necessity of skipping 

 a season. 



Gulls, great and small, with graceful marsh -terns, floated 



