THE B.ETICAN WILDEKNESS MAY. 93 



smaller, and of a rich liver-brown, heavily blotched with 

 black. The larger Gull-billed Tern {Sterna anglica) breeds 

 only on the islets of the marisma. I obtained their eggs, 

 and those of the Lesser Tern (S. minnta) on my first visit 

 on the 23rd of May. 



These islands which we have just described lay some 

 six or eight miles from the low shores of the marisma, and 

 at that distance no land whatever was in sight. The 

 coup d'ceil therefrom presented an extraordinary scene of 

 desolation. The only relief from the monotony of endless 

 wastes of water were the birds. A shrieking, clamouring 

 crowd hung overhead, while only a few yards away the 

 surface was dotted with troops of stilts sedately stalking 

 about, knee-deep — in no other situation do their long legs 

 permit them to feed. Further away large nights of 

 smaller waders flashed — now white, now dark, — in the sun- 

 light. Most of these were ring-dotterels, dunlins, and 

 curlew-sandpiper, the two latter in full summer-plumage 

 A marsh-harrier, oologically inclined, was being bullied 

 and chased by a score of peewits : and now and then a 

 little string of ducks high overhead would still remind one 

 of winter. Beyond all these, the strange forms of 

 hundreds of flamingoes met one's eye in every direction — 

 some in groups or in dense masses, oihers with rigidly out- 

 stretched necks and legs flying in short strings, or larger 

 flights "glinting" in the sunshine like a pink cloud. Many 

 pairs of old red birds were observed to be accompanied by 

 a single white (immature) one. But the most extraordinary 

 effect was produced by the more distant herds, the 

 immense numbers of which formed an almost unbroken 

 white horizon — a thin white line separating sea and sky 

 round a great part of the circle. 



But this chapter is long enough, and we must reserve 

 for another the rest of our experiences among the 



