Unexplored Spain Part 47

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 s.p.a.ce 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.

FERRUGINOUS 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 is largely dry. Nests, mid-May; eggs, nine or ten.

POCHARD (_Fuligula ferina_).--Though we have not found it ourselves, one of our fowlers (Machachado) tells us that pochards breed on the lakes, and even more in Las Nuevas, laying but few eggs--five to seven.

RED-CRESTED POCHARD (_Fuligula rufila_).--This is the characteristic breeding-duck at Daimiel in La Mancha, as well as on the Albufera of Valencia, at both of which points it abounds. Yet curiously it is all but unknown on the Baetican marismas. Among the thousands of ducks we have shot therein, but a single example of the red-crested pochard figures--a female killed January 19, 1903.

TUFTED DUCK (_Fuligula cristata_).--None remain, though abundant in winter.

WHITE-FACED DUCK (_Erismatura leucocephala_).--This species, known as _Bamboleta_ or _Malvasia_, arrives in spring and breeds commonly on every deep pool and reed-girt lagoon in Andalucia.

SHELDUCKS (_Tadorna cornuta_), we are a.s.sured (though this we have not proved), breed in the marisma in hollows (_hoyos_)--such as the cavernous footprints made by cattle in the soft mud in winter. Common in dry winters.

RUDDY SHELDUCK (_Tadorna casarca_).--These are seen here all summer, yet we have failed to discover their breeding-places. They are common, old and young, on the Laguna de Medina in August and September. This is a striking species of stately flight and clear-toned ringing cry--_H[=a][=a]-[)a][)a]_--thrice repeated.

WAGTAILS

PIED WAGTAIL (_Motacilla lugubris_).--This familiar British species occurs rarely in S. Spain--we have but four records, all in winter. In the reverse, the WHITE WAGTAIL (_M. alba_) abounds--ploughed lands sometimes look _grey_ with it; and it is here, in winter, as tame and familiar as one sees it in Norway and Iceland in summer. Yet midway between the two, _i.e._ in the British Isles, we have seen it but thrice! There it may indeed be termed a "rare bird." The explanation seems to be that (like the two southern wheatears) these two wagtails are not specifically distinct, but merely a dimorphic form. This year (June 1910) we found the white wagtail breeding commonly in North Estremadura.

During a northerly hurricane on February 7, 1903, we observed an a.s.semblage of many hundreds of white wagtails on the barren sand-dunes of Majada Real--a second crowd, as numerous, a mile away. Both were migrating bands arrested by the gale. This is merely one example out of scores that have come under our notice of the magical apparition of birds from the clouds, caused by a sudden change of wind. Specially notable, besides wagtails, are swallows, wheatears, pipits and larks.

The GREY WAGTAIL (_M. melanope_), though occasionally seen in winter, is most conspicuous about mid-February, when it pa.s.ses several days on our lawn at Jerez. It has not then acquired the black throat of spring; but two months later we have found it nesting on mountain-burns of the sierras--precisely such situations as it frequents among the Northumbrian moors.

The YELLOW WAGTAIL (_M. flava_; the Continental form, _cinereocapilla_) appears on the lawn a week or so after the grey species has disappeared; but this remains throughout the spring, nesting in wet meadows and marshes, laying during the last week of April.

The British form (_M. raii_) also occurs during spring, but rarely and on pa.s.sage only, none remaining to nest.

RESTRICTED DISTRIBUTION

ROOK (_Corvus frugilegus_).--There is a certain limited stretch--say a league or so, on the foresh.o.r.es of the marisma--whither each winter come a few scores of rooks. At that one spot, and nowhere else within our knowledge, are rooks to be found in southern Spain.

MAGPIE (_Pica caudata_).--On the western bank of Guadalquivir this bird abounds to a degree we have seen surpa.s.sed nowhere else on earth. But cross that river, and never another magpie will you see for a hundred miles to the eastward. For it the lower Baetis marks a frontier. Over the rest of Spain its distribution is normal and regular.

A similar remark would almost hold good of the Jackdaw (_Corvus monedula_).

The AZURE-WINGED MAGPIE (_Cyanopica cooki_) abounds in central Spain and in the Sierra Morena. But its southern range stops dead at the little village of Coria del Rio just below Sevilla. 'Tis but a few miles beyond, yet in Donana we have never seen so much as a straggler. The Azure-wing does not straggle.

From Spain (as elsewhere stated) you must travel to China and j.a.pan ere you see another azure-winged magpie.

JAYS (_Garrulus glandarius_) in Spain confine themselves to mountain-forests, eschewing the lowland woods which in other lands form their home.