270 Unexplored Spain 
level, and bearing the impression of the bird’s legs distinctly 
marked upon the periphery. The general aspect of the plateau 
might be likened to a large table covered with plates. In the 
centre was a deep hole full of muddy water, which, from the 
gouged appearance of its sides, had probably supplied the birds 
with building material. 
Scattered round the main colony were many single nests, 
rising out of the water and evidently built up from the bottom. 
Here and there two or three of these were joined together— 
“semi-detached,” so to speak. These isolated nests stood some 
eight inches above water-level, and as the depth exceeded a foot, 
their total height would be two feet or thereabouts, and their 
width across the hollowed top, some fifteen inches. None of the 
nests as yet contained eggs, and though we returned to the 
pajeréra on the latest day we were in its neighbourhood 
{May 11), they still remained empty. On both occasions many 
hundreds of flamingoes were sitting on the nests, and on the 
11th we enjoyed excellent views at close quarters. Linked arm- 
in-arm with Felipe, and crouching low on the water to look as 
little human as possible, we had approached within seventy yards 
before the sentries first showed signs of alarm; and at that 
distance, with binoculars, observed the sitting flamingoes as 
distinctly as one need wish. The long red legs doubled under 
their bodies, the knees projecting slightly beyond the tail, and 
the graceful necks neatly curled away among their back feathers 
