Days' Nesting in Andalucia. 85 
rush, with the growing rushes bent over to form a perfect 
cover. They are generally hard to find, as it is often impos- 
sible to see the eggs from above ; but at times they are easily 
discovered, the very cleverness of the bird leading to detection. 
A ball of reeds excites suspicion : open it, and the eggs are 
disclosed. They vary considerably in size and colour ; one 
nest, from which I shot the female, contained examples almost 
like those of the Siberian Jay, while others were brown 
throughout. A complete clutch never consisted of fewer than 
six eggs, and sometimes of seven or eight, one contained 
nine. They are often piled up one above the other. They 
are usually smaller and always more glossy than eggs of the 
Little Crake. One nest, containing eight eggs, was found in 
the marisma, near a colony of Black Terns. 
Gallinula chloropus. 
Common. We saw many nests with eggs from May 4th tp 
Mav 26th, on the wet marisma. 
FULICA ATRA. 
Very abundant. The eggs are collected by the basketful 
and sold for eating. Nests seep from April 19th ; young 
on Mav 18th. 
FuLlCA CRISTATA. 
Local : breeds earlier than the last species ; we found some 
eggs on the point of hatching on April 27th and all the others 
were much incubated. Col. Irby says (Ornith. Straits of 
Gibraltar, ed. 2, p. 145) '^ the eggs are not to be distinguished 
from those of the Common Coot {F. atra) ." With due respect 
for such an authority, my own experience is different and so 
is that of Mr. F. C. Selous. In all the nests of the Crested 
Coot which I saw the eggs were much redder in ground- 
colour and also larger : out of the hundreds taken on the 
marismas (where F. cristata does 7iot breed) I never found 
one approaching such a colour ; in fact, a single Crested 
Coot's Q^^ could easily be detected if placed with any number 
of the others. The nests I saw were also different, being 
more substantial and not covered with the bower-like screen 
