Spring-time in the Marismas 391 



[Note. — Referring to the last sentence, our companion, Commander H. 

 Lynes, E. N., writes : — " All the gulls I saw on Santolalla I am j)ositive 

 were L. ridibundus, and I looked most carefully. The wing-pattern of 

 melanocephalus is very distinct. With the latter I became quite iamiliar in 

 the Mediterranean in winter, and also saw them in late summer at Smyrna." 

 We, nevertheless, leave our own record as above, being confident that such 

 gulls as happened to come within our own view were exclusively of the 

 southern species, with its darker and deeper hood. But the occurrence 

 of our British Black-headed Gull so far south in mid-May is also 

 remarkable. That species, though abundant all winter, has disappeared, 

 as a rule, by the end of March. Our own last note of observing it 

 during the spring in question was on April 1. We may add a further 

 note of having observed both species (swimming alongside) on Guadal- 

 quivir, March 12, 1909. The distinction, alike in the depth and darker 

 shade of the " hood " in L. mdanocej)halus, was unmistakable, even to naked 

 eye.] 



This dry spring not a spoonbill nested in Andalucia. The 

 teeming jpajareras, or heronries, at the Rocina de la Madre and 

 in Donana were left lifeless and abandoned. In normal years 

 these are tenanted (as shown in photo at p. 32) by countless 

 multitudes of bufF-backed, squacco, and night-herons, glossy ibis, 

 some purple herons, and a few pairs of spoonbills, whose massed 

 nests fairly weigh down the marsh-girt tamarisks. 



ORPHEAN WARBLER [Sylvia orphca) 

 Arrives end of April ; hardly so brilliant a songster as its specitic title would import. 



