Appendix 409 
resemble those of mallards, consisting of twigs with a few feathers placed on 
the mud, and easily seen through the open clump of samphire which shelters 
them.+ 
MALLARD (Anas boschas), in the marisma, nest in precisely similar situations, 
but their eggs number twelve or fourteen. Elsewhere their nests (being among 
bush or reedbeds) are less easily seen. 
WicEoN (Mareca penelope) never breed, though chance birds (and some 
greylags also) remain every summer—possibly wounded. 
GADWALL (Anas strepera) do not nest in the open marisma, but many pairs 
retire to the rush-fringed inland lagoons, such as Zopiton and Santolalla. They 
lay nine to twelve eggs about mid-May, usually at a short distance from the 
water. 
TEAL (Nettion erecca) remain quite exceptionally. Even in that wet spring, 
1908, only a single nest was found. There were eight eggs laid on bare mud, 
with hardly any nest, beneath a samphire bush. Though quite fresh, and 
placed at once under a hen, these eggs did not hatch. 
GARGANEY (Querquedula circia) breed among the samphire in the open 
marisma—in wet seasons quite numerously. Seven young, caught newly 
hatched in 1908 and kept alive at Jerez, showed no distinctive sexual colora- 
tion all that autumn or up to February 1909. Early in March three drakes 
became distinguishable, the most advanced being complete in feather by the 
15th, and all three perfect by April 1. 
Young pintails, on the other hand, acquire complete sexual dress in the 
autumn, as mallards do, by November. 
Garganey also nest in large numbers on the lagoons of Daimiel in La 
Mancha. 
MarsBLeD Duck (Quergquedula angustirostris).— This is one of the most 
abundant of the Spanish-breeding ducks, nesting both in the marisma and 
along the various channels of the Guadalquivir. Their nests, substantially 
built of twigs of samphire, dead reeds, and grass, lined with down, are 
carefully concealed among covert, usually on dry ground. Some are approached 
by a sort of tunnel. Exceptionally we have seen a nest built a foot high in 
the branches of a samphire bush with a clear space beneath, and overhanging 
shallow water. The eggs, laid at the end of May, vary from twelve to fourteen, 
and in one instance twenty—possibly the produce of two females. We find 
these the most difficult of all the ducks to rear in confinement. Probably 
their food is quite different, anyway they are very bad eating. 
Marbled ducks are unknown at Daimiel. 
SHOVELERS (Spatula clypeata) only breed exceptionally and in wet seasons ; 
we found one nest at Las Nuevas in 1908. Though abundant in winter, does 
not breed at Daimiel. 
Frrrucinous Ducks (Fuligula nyroca), like all the diving tribe, breed only 
on deep and permanent lakes, such as those of Medina and Daimiel, where 
they abound all summer. None nest in the marisma, which in summer 1s 
largely dry. Nests, mid-May ; eggs, nine or ten. 
1 In Jutland we found some pintails’ nests rather cunningly concealed in holes upon open 
grassy islets in marine lagoons not unlike our Spanish marismas ; others were on bare 
ground, though occasionally hidden among thistles. Here also the eggs num 
nine, See Ibis, 1894, p. 349. 
bered eight or 
