winter in the marshes. 423 



White Stork. 



Spanish, Ciguena. 



Though not a sporting bird in any sense, and in some 

 respects almost sacred, the stork attracts the sportsman's 

 attention by its size, boldly-marked plumage, and majestic 

 appearance on the wing. Nesting chiefly in the towns, on 

 churches and other buildings, as well as on the peasants' cots 

 and on trees in the country, storks are dispersed in hundreds 

 during winter over the marshy plains, though many also 

 migrate to Africa at that season. Their food consists of 

 frogs, as well as lizards and various small reptiles and 

 insects ; in May we have watched them snapping up 

 locusts by dozens. 



Black Stork. 

 Spanish, Ciguena negra. 



The only birds of this species we have killed are a pair,' 

 shot right and left, near Jerez, in March, many years ago. 

 We have reason to believe that the black stork breeds on 

 the Upper Guadiana, and in Castile have observed it in May. 



On May 16th, 1891, we watched a pair which evidently 

 had a nest in the crags overhanging the Eio Alberche, New 

 Castile, but had not time to discover its exact position. 

 Manuel de la Torre states that it breeds yearly in the 

 Montes de Toledo. 



Bittern. 



Spanish, Ave-toro, garza-mochuelo. 



Twenty winters ago, in the marshes below Ovar, in 

 Portugal, my dog Nilo came to a " point " near a clump 

 of thick sedges. Two yards before his nose I espied a 

 strange apparition — a mere point' erect amidst the rank 

 herbage, hardly thicker than and much resembling a sere and 

 yellow flag : there was no visible semblance of head or form^- 



