38 Unexplored Spain 
(vaqueros) who tend the wild-bred cattle and horses that in 
semi-feral condition wander both in the regions of scrub and out 
in the open marisma. Nomadic charcoal-burners squat in the 
forests, shifting their reed built wigwams (chozas) as the 
exigencies of work require; while the gathering of pine-cones 
yields a precarious living to a handful of pifioneros. Lastly, but 
most important to us, there are the guardas or keepers, keen-eyed, 
leather-clad, and sun-bronzed to the hue of Red Indians. There 
are a dozen of these wild men distributed at salient points of the 
Coto, most of them belonging to families which have held these 
posts, sons succeeding fathers, for generations. Of three such 
cycles we have ourselves already been witnesses. 
Briefly to summarise a rich and heterogeneous fauna is not 
easy; a volume 
might be devoted 
to this region alone. 
Elsewhere in this 
book some few sub- 
jects are treated in 
detail. Here we 
merely attempt an 
outline sketch. 
MARSH-HARRIER (Circus aeruginosus) Throughout the 
winter (excepting 
only the wildfowl) there exists no such conspicuous ornithic 
display as appeals to casual eye or ear—those, say, of the 
average traveller. Ride far and wide through these wild land- 
scapes in December or January, and you may wonder if their 
oft-boasted wealth of bird-life be not exaggerated. You see, 
perhaps, little beyond the ubiquitous birds-of-prey. These are 
ever the first feature to strike a stranger. Great eagles, soaring 
in eccentric circles, hunt the cistus-clad plain; the wild scream 
of the kite rings out above the pines, and shapely buzzards 
adorn some dead tree. Over rush-girt bogs soar weird marsh- 
harriers—three flaps and a drift as, with piercing sight, they 
scan each tuft and miss not so much as a frog or a wounded 
wigeon. All these and others of their race are naturally con- 
spicuous. But, though unseen, there lurk all around other forms 
of equal beauty and interest, abundant enough, but secretive 
and apt to be overlooked save by closest scrutiny. That, how- 
