404 Unexplored Spain 
curlew, nor the points (if any) where it is common, nor where it 
breeds. In southern Spain it appears every year during February 
and at no other season; while even then its visits are confined 
to a few days and to certain limited areas. The photo at p. 250 
shows a beautiful pair shot February 5, 1898. When met with, 
they are rather conspicuous birds, distinguishable from whimbrel 
by their paler colour—indeed, on rising, the “ slender-bills” look 
almost white. A specially favoured haunt in the Coto Dofiana 
is the bare sandy flat in front of Martinazo. 
When we first studied ornithology there still remained whole 
categories of birds (many of them abundant British species) 
whose breeding-places were utterly unknown. 
One by one they have been removed from the list of 
‘“‘missing,” forced to surrender their secrets by the resistless, 
world-scouring energy of ornithologists (mostly British). The 
year 1909 saw but ONE species yet undiscovered—our present 
friend, the slender-billed curlew. 
While we are yet busy with this book, the eggs of the 
slender-billed curlew have been found—in Siberia!—the ulti- 
mate answer in all such cases. ‘The first was exhibited by Mr. 
H. E. Dresser at the meeting of the British Ornithologists’ Club 
on December 15, 1909, having been taken by Mr. P. A. 
Schastowskij on the shores of Lake Tschany, near Taganowskiye, 
in Siberia on the 20th of May preceding. 
Yes, there do exist “rare birds,” and in Europe the slender- 
billed curlew appears to be an excellent illustration of the fact. 
SanToLaLia, December 29, 1897.—A wild night, black as ink, 
and a whole gale blowing from the eastward ; an hour’s ride through 
the scrub, and five guns silently distribute themselves along the 
shores. Strategic necessity placed us to windward, so most 
fowl were bound to fall in the water. As stars pale to the dawn 
the flight begins, the dark skies hurtle with the rush of passing 
clouds, and for two hours a steady fusillade startles the solitude. 
As ten o'clock approaches, one by one we seek the cork-oak, 
from beneath whose canopy a welcome column of smoke has long 
announced that breakfast was preparing. But considering the 
run of shooting we have heard, the toll of game brought in seems 
humiliating. Each gunner, gloomily depositing his fifteen or 
twenty, declares he has lost twice that number in the open 
water ! Well, a list of “claims” being drawn up, it appears 
