404 Unexplored Spain 



curlew, nor the points (if any) where it is common, nor where it 

 breeds. In southern Spain it appears every year during February 

 and at no other season ; while even then its visits are confined 

 to a few days and to certain limited areas. The photo at p. 250 

 shows a beautiful pair shot February 5, 1898. "When met with, 

 they are rather conspicuous birds, distinguishable from whimbrel 

 by their paler colour — indeed, on rising, the " slender-bills " look 

 almost white. A specially favoured haunt in the Goto Doiiana 

 is the bare sandy flat in front of Martinazo. 



When we first studied ornitliology there still remained whole 

 categories of birds (many of them abundant British species) 

 whose breeding-places were utterly unknown. 



One by one they have been removed from the list of 

 " missing," forced to surrender their secrets by the resistless, 

 world-scouring energy of ornithologists (mostly British). The 

 year 1909 saw but ONE species yet undiscovered — our present 

 friend, the slender-billed curlew. 



AVhile we are yet busy wdth this book, the eggs of the 

 slender-billed curlew have been found — in Siberia ! — the ulti- 

 mate answer in all such cases. The first was exhibited by Mr. 

 H. E. Dresser at the meeting of the British Ornithologists' Club 

 on December 15, 1909, having been taken by Mr. P. A. 

 Schastow^skij on the shores of Lake Tschany, near Taganowskiye, 

 in Siberia on the 20th of May preceding. 



Yes, there do exist " rare birds," and in Europe the slender- 

 billed curlew appears to be an excellent illustration of the fact. 



Santolalla, December 29, 1897. — A wild night, black as ink, 

 and a wdiole gale blowing from the eastward ; an hour's ride through 

 the scrub, and five guns silently distribute themselves along the 

 shores. Strategic necessity placed us to windward, so most 

 fowl w^ere bound to fall in the water. As stars pale to the dawn 

 the flight begins, the dark skies hurtle with the rush of passing 

 clouds, and for two hours a steady fusillade startles the solitude. 



As ten o'clock approaches, one by one w^e seek the cork-oak, 

 from beneath whose canopy a welcome column of smoke has long- 

 announced that breakfast w\as preparing. But considering the 

 run of shooting we have heard, the toll of game brought in seems 

 humiliating. Each gunner, gloomily depositing his fifteen or 

 twenty, declares he has lost twice that number in the open 

 water ! . . . Well, a list of " claims " being drawn up, it appears 



