256 



WILD SPAIN. 



Among the earlier breeders is the Spanish Green Wood- 

 pecker, which drills deep holes in the hard wood of cork- 

 oak or olive, and lays six shining white eggs in March. 

 Now (April) they had young, but rear a second brood in 

 May. Though they are so abundant, yet the " tapping " 

 sound characteristic of the Woodpeckers is not heard in 

 the Spanish forests, for their food consists of ants and of 

 the small, red and black beetles that cluster in every 

 crevice of the rough cork-bark. 



The Boilers were also laying in mid-April — here in 

 hollow trees, elsewhere in crevices of rocks or ruins : but 

 wherever their treasure may be, the silly birds are sure to 

 disclose its position by then incessant " caterwauling," 

 and anxious, tumbling flight. On the 17th April we 

 found the first nest of the Southern Grey Shrike (Lanius 

 meridionalis) in a high mastic-bush. The nest resembled 

 that of the Missel- Thrush, the five eggs larger and more 

 darkly marbled than those of the northern L. excubitor. 

 Nests of the Woodchat (L. rufus) may be found in almost 

 every bush from May 10th onward, and the Bee-eaters 

 have then formed swarming colonies in the river-banks 

 like Sand-Martins. 



As remarkable a freak as any in nature is the system 

 of reproduction by proxy adopted by the Great Spotted 

 Cuckoo (Coccystes glandarius) . This smart and handsome 

 bird, though more abundant in Estremadura and the 

 Castiles, is fairly numerous on the wooded prairies of 

 Andalucia, where its curious nesting habits may be 

 observed with ease. The parasitic habits of the European 

 Caculida are well known — none of these birds building 

 a nest or rearing their own young. Our British Cuckoo 

 deposits its eggs singly -in the nests of hedge-sparrow, 

 warbler, wagtail, or other small bird — it is not particular 

 which. The Spotted Cuckoo, however, does not impose this 

 duty of rearing her young upon her neighbours generally, 

 but almost exclusively upon the common Magpie : though 

 exceptionally upon the Azure-winged species (Cyanopica 

 cookii) and the Baven as well. At the Encinar del Visco, 

 during the past year (1891), the writer found two of the 



