Sketches of Spanish Bird-Life 403 



Hence their sudden appearance in new areas (such as tliis, at 

 forestless Jerez) is at once conspicuous. 



Glossy Ibis {Plegadis falcincllus). — Birds, as a rule, are strict 

 geographists. They recognise fixed range-boundaries and abide 

 thereby. But exceptions occur, and an instance has been offered 

 by the glossy ibis. Tliis bird has always been a conspicuous 

 member of the teeming pajareras, or mixed heronries, of our 

 wooded swamps of Andalucia. But it was only as a spring- 

 migrant that the ibis was known. It arrived in April and 

 departed, after nesting, in September. A diluvial winter in 

 1907-8, however, apparently induced it to reconsider its "stand- 

 ing orders." Already, that autumn, the ibises had departed — as 

 usual. But in December (the whole country meanwhile having 

 been inundated) they suddenly reappeared. Small parties 

 distributed themselves over the marismas, and with them came 

 an unwonted profusion of other waders, stilts and curlews, 

 whimbrels and godwits, the latter a month or two before their 

 usual date. All availed the occasion to frequent far-inland spots, 

 normally dry bush and forest, 7iota quae sedes fnerat columhis, 

 and one saw flights of waders and even ducks, such as teal and 

 shoveler, circliuoj over flooded forest-oiades. 



The changed quarters evidently met with approval, for each 

 succeeding year since then we have had the company of ibises 

 during winter. 



An immature ibis, shot January 30, otherwise in normal 

 plumage, had the head and neck brownish grey with curlew-like 

 striations. 



Slender-billed Curlew [Numenius tenuirostris). — Years 

 ago we wrote in our wrath, moved thereto by the constant 

 misuse of the term, that such a thing as a " rare bird " does not 

 exist, save only in a relative sense. Go to its proper home, 

 wherever that may be, and the supposed rarity is found abundant 

 as its own utility and nature's balances permit. Should some 

 lost wanderer straggle a few hundred miles thence, it is pro- 

 claimed a •' rare bird." 



Against this, our old mentor, Howard Saunders, wrote across 

 the proof-sheet: "There are rare birds, some nearly extinct"; 

 and the above species affords an admirable example of these 

 exceptions to the general ride. 



No one at present knows the true home of the slender-billed 



