DRESSER : THREE WEEKS ON THE GUADALQUIVIR. 35 



who was playing on the guitar and singing a rather wild kind of 

 a song. When we explained what we wanted, he took us upstairs 

 and showed us a basket of eggs which he was going to boil before 

 taking to the market to-morrow morning, and out of these I selected 

 about a dozen eggs of Lams gelastes and a few others, besides 

 several which somewhat resembled the eggs of the Gull-billed Tern, 

 but which he assured me were those of a Black -headed Gull (which, 

 from his description, could be nothing else hvXLarus inelanocepkalus), 

 and not of a Tern. Finding that the old man knew the birds of the 

 country thoroughly well, I asked him to have a glass of wine, and to 

 bring any other egg-collector he knew. He went out with us and 

 soon found another egger, and we all adjourned to a queer old wine- 

 shop, where I ordered a bottle of the white wine of the country and 

 handed round my cigar-case. This opened their hearts, and they 

 soon gave me lots of interesting information. He described the 

 birds very well, and amongst others he described a Duck which he 

 had shot off her eggs, and which I feel sure must have been 

 Erismatiira Icucocephala. He also told me that he had found 

 a red Duck, which he called 'Pato tarro,' and which from his 

 description was Tadonia aisarca, breeding in a rabbit-burrow on the 

 other side of the river. About ten years ago, he told me, the 'Gallo 

 azul ' {Forpliyrio acruleus) used to breed in the marismas, but he had 

 not seen one during the last four or five years, and did not believe 

 that it is now to be found there at all. The lesser Herons also {Ardea 

 garzelia, ralloides, and bubulcus) are now, he said, extremely rare, and 

 last year he only knew of one small colony of the Buff-backed 

 Heron. Amongst other things, he told me of a man who for years 

 past had spent the summer in the marismas, where he collected eggs 

 and fished, only coming to town to dispose of his eggs and fish, and 

 told me where we should find him now. After spending an hour 

 with these men we started back for Bonanza, where we arrived at 

 about nine, and on going aboard the launch, found that Colonel 

 Barclay had arrived back by rail from Seville, so we got our supper 

 and turned in. 



The next day being Sunday (19th May), we steamed up to the 

 marisma, and rested there all day, and as it rained heavily, we were 

 unable to leave the launch. Early the following morning (20th May) 

 we sent our man to hunt up the old egger, whom he found located 

 in a hut built of rushes, on the bank of the Cano, where his boat 

 was moored, and who returned with him at 8.30. We soon made a 

 bargain with him to take us to some breeding-places of the Gulls. 

 We steamed some distance up the river, and then went ashore, and 

 after walking some distance through the marsh, he took us to 



Feb. i8go. 



