Sketches of Spanish Bird-Life 403 
Hence their sudden appearance in new areas (such as this, at 
forestless Jerez) is at once conspicuous. 
Giossy Isis (Plegadis falcinellus).—Birds, as a rule, are strict 
geographists. They recognise fixed range-boundaries and abide 
thereby. But exceptions occur, and an instance has been offered 
by the glossy ibis. This bird has always been a conspicuous 
member of the teeming payjaréras, or mixed heronries, of our 
wooded swamps of Andalucia. But it was only as a spring- 
migrant that the ibis was known. It arrived in April and 
departed, after nesting, in September. A diluvial winter in 
1907-8, however, apparently induced it to reconsider its “ stand- 
ing orders.” Already, that autumn, the ibises had departed—as 
usual. But in December (the whole country meanwhile having 
been inundated) they suddenly reappeared. Small parties 
distributed themselves over the marismas, and with them came 
an unwonted profusion of other waders, stilts and curlews, 
whimbrels and godwits, the latter a month or two before their 
usual date. All availed the occasion to frequent far-inland spots, 
normally dry bush and forest, nota quae sedes fuerat columbis, 
and one saw flights of waders and even ducks, such as teal and 
shoveler, circling over flooded forest-glades. 
The changed quarters evidently met with approval, for each 
succeeding year since then we have had the company of ibises 
during winter. 
An immature ibis, shot January 30, otherwise in normal 
plumage, had the head and neck brownish grey with curlew-like 
striations. 
SLENDER-BILLED CurLEW (Numenius tenutrostris).— Years 
ago we wrote in our wrath, moved thereto by the constant 
misuse of the term, that such a thing as a “rare bird” does not 
exist, save only in a relative sense. Go to its proper home, 
wherever that may be, and the supposed rarity is found abundant 
as its own utility and nature’s balances permit. Should some 
lost wanderer straggle a few hundred miles thence, it is pro- 
claimed a “ rare bird.” 
Against this, our old mentor, Howard Saunders, wrote across 
the proof-sheet: ‘There arg rare birds, some nearly extinct” ; 
and the above species affords an admirable example of these 
exceptions to the general rule. 
No one at present knows the true home of the slender-billed 
