Birds of Alcudia, Majorca. 
673 
1921.] 
a rule, with a thick undergrowth of juniper, myrtle, rose¬ 
mary, heather, etc., in places densely bound together with a 
tangle of Smilax aspersa —a tough, thorny creeper, as 
difficult to get through as barbed wire. Behind the sand- 
dunes, nearest Puerta Alcudia and to the west of it, is an 
extent of marshland, covered with spear-grass, samphire, and 
coarse herbage, among which are several shallow lagoons. 
Behind this marshland, and farther west, are low hills with 
woods of splendid pine-trees among them—the outlying spurs 
of the high mountainous country in the north. Beyond 
the sweep of the bay is the Albufera—a large tract of 
swamp, entirely under water, covered with a dense growth 
of reeds and intersected with numerous canals and streams, 
which all run into the sea through a large canal nearly in 
the centre of the bay. An attempt was made many years 
ago to drain this Albufera, in order to grow rice and cotton, 
and most elaborate roads, dykes, and pumping-stations were 
constructed ; but the work was relinquished, and most of 
the dykes and buildings are now neglected and in ruins. 
A small quantity of rice, however, is still grown in the 
fringes of the marsh, and a prosperous paper-mill flourishes 
in the centre, where paper is made from the reeds growing 
in the marsh. Beyond the Albufera, sand-dunes, pine- 
woods, and heath-land extend inland as far as Santa 
Margarita, among which are some fine torrentes ; then comes 
the bare, rocky, scrub-covered country at the foot of the 
mountains round Arta to Cabo Farruch. 
East of Alcudia is the peninsula between the bays of 
Pollensa and Alcudia—a tract of wild mountainous country, 
rising to a height of 1500 feet at the Atalaya de Alcudia, 
with beautiful pine-woods and gorges, bold crags and 
precipices, and some fine coast scenery, culminating in the 
Cabo del Pinar—a low pine-covered cape—and the bare, 
forbidding cliffs of the Cabo de Menorca. 
At the western end of the Bay of Pollensa is a smaller 
marsh, called the Albuferete, which takes all the streams 
flowing eastwards from the mountains behind Pollensa. 
The peninsula on the northern shore of Pollensa Bay is a 
