72 



WILD SPAIN. 



Imagination can hardly picture, nor Nature provide, a 

 region more congenial to the tastes of wild aquatic birds 

 than these huge marismas, with their silent stretches of 

 marsh-land and savannahs, cane-brake and stagnant 

 waters, and their profusion of plant and insect life. Here, 

 in spring, in an ornithological Eden, one sees almost daily 

 new bird-forms. During the vernal migration the still air 

 resounds with unknown notes, and many of those species 

 which at home are the rarest — hardly known save in books 

 or museums — are here the most conspicuous, filling the 

 desolate landscape with life and animation. The months 

 of February and March witness the withdrawal of most of 

 the winter wild-fowl. Day after day the clouds of Pintails 

 and Wigeon, of Shovellers, Pochards, and Teal, and fresh 

 files of grey geese wing their way northwards ; while their 

 places are simultaneously being filled by arrivals from the 

 south. April brings an influx of graceful forms and many 

 sub-tropical species, for which Andalucia forms, roughly 

 speaking, the northern limit ; while in May is superadded 

 a " through transit," which renders the bird-life of that 

 period at times almost bewildering. 



But before attempting to fill in the details, it is necessary 

 to explain the mode of travel and the methods by which 

 these wildernesses can be investigated. Uninhabited and 

 abandoned to wild-fowl and flamingoes, and lying remote 

 from any "base of operations," the exploration of the 

 marismas is an undertaking of some difficulty. They 

 cannot, owing to their extent, be worked from any single 

 base ; hence, thoroughly to explore them and penetrate 

 then- lonely expanses, necessitates a well-equipped expedi- 

 tion, independent of external aid, and prepared to encamp 

 night after night among the tamarisks or samphire on 

 bleak islet or barren arenal. Some of our earlier efforts, 

 twenty years ago, resulted in total failure. Setting out 

 by way of the river, the light launches suitable for 

 the shallow marisma proved unequal to the voyage up 

 the broad Guadalquivir ; while, on the other hand, the 

 larger craft in which that exposed estuary could be safely 

 navigated were useless in the shallows. One attempt was 



