28 DRESSER : THREE WEEKS ON THE GUADALQUIVIR. 



* patio,' in the centre planted with flowers or orange-trees. Outside 

 the town were some large gardens filled with beautiful flowers, and 

 scattered around were some large orange and lemon groves. We 

 found a tolerably good inn near the Plaza, where we got our dinner 

 and purchased some supplies, after which we returned to Bonanza, 

 went on board the launch, and started up the river, where we again 

 went ashore ; and whilst Barclay walked along the shore, I, with one 

 of the men, went inland to the cottage of one of the keepers, to 

 whom we had a letter. As he was out we had to wait for him, and 

 I soon made friends with the children and induced them to go out 

 with me to hunt for eggs, but we found nothing but Magpies' nests, 

 which were plentiful enough ; but in one of these we found five 

 Magpie's eggs and one of the (Ireat Spotted Cuckoo {Oxylophus 

 glandarius). On returning to the cottage we found the keeper had 

 arrived, and after arranging with him to start off and obtain per- 

 mission for us to go some distance inland with one of the under- 

 keepers, we returned to the launch, got our supper, and turned in 

 for the night. 



Early the next day (15th May) we steamed up to a marsh some 

 distance away, and went ashore with the men. Here we saw 

 large numbers of the Ruhilla or Marbled Duck, and found two 

 nests, containing only egg-shells, the Harriers having been there 

 before us. Also a nest of the Mallard with only one egg, the 

 others having likewise been sucked by Harriers. These nests 

 were placed under low bushes on the low flat ground, which 

 had been left dry when the water had receded, and some short 

 distance away from the true marsh. In the marsh itself, where 

 the water was nearly knee-deep, and where there were also low 

 bushes and quantities of rushes and rank herbage, we found 

 one nest of Montagu's Harrier with two eggs, one of the Marsh 

 Harrier with three young in down, and saw numbers of Stilts, 

 Whiskered Terns, Black Terns, and Grebes, and several Shags or 

 Cormorants {Phalacrocorax graculiis) passed overhead, flying towards 

 the mouth of the river. Whilst wading through the marsh we came 

 across four men, who were busy collecting eggs to take to San Lucar, 

 where they offer them, hard boiled, for sale in the market, and 

 through them we procured eggs of the Black I'ern, Eared Grebe 

 {Podiceps nigricollis). Little Grebe {Tachybaptes fluviatilis), Lesser 

 Tern {Sterna mitmta), and Marbled Duck. One of them caught a 

 Baillon's Crake, in which, when we skinned it, we found an egg ready 

 for exclusion. On our way back to the launch, as I was walking 

 with one of our men, we flushed a Marbled Duck, which we shot, 

 and on examining the place where she rose, we found a nest con- 



Naturalist, 



