. Unexplored Spain. Hunting; Natural history. 62 Unexplored Spain violet. Strange diptera and winged creatures of many sorts and sizes, from gnat and midge to savage dragon-flies, rustle and drone in one's ear or poise on iridescent wing in the sunlight, and the hateful hiss of the mosquito mingles with the insect- melody. Over each open flower of rock-rose or cistus hovers the humming-bird hawk-moth with, more rarely, one of the larger sphinxes {S. convolvuli), each with long proboscis inserted deep in tender calyx. Not even the butterflies are entirely absent. We have noticed gorgeous specie
. Unexplored Spain. Hunting; Natural history. 62 Unexplored Spain violet. Strange diptera and winged creatures of many sorts and sizes, from gnat and midge to savage dragon-flies, rustle and drone in one's ear or poise on iridescent wing in the sunlight, and the hateful hiss of the mosquito mingles with the insect- melody. Over each open flower of rock-rose or cistus hovers the humming-bird hawk-moth with, more rarely, one of the larger sphinxes {S. convolvuli), each with long proboscis inserted deep in tender calyx. Not even the butterflies are entirely absent. We have noticed gorgeous species at Christmas time, including clouded yellows, painted lady and red admiral, southern wood- argus, Bath white, Lycaena telicanus, Thais polyxena, Megaera, and many more. On the warni sand at midday bask pretty green and spotted lizards,^ apparently asleep, but alert to dart ofi" on slightest alarm, disappeariDg like a thought in some crevice of the cistus stems. Hard by a winter- wandering hoopoe struts in an open glade, prodding the earth with curved bill and crest laid back like a "claw- hammer"; from a tall cistus-spray the southern grey shrike mumbles his harsh soliloquy, and chattering magpies everywhere surmount the evergreen bush. Where the warm sunshine induces untimely ripening of the tamarisk, some brightly coloured birds flicker around pecking at the buds. They appear to be chaffinches, but a glance through the glass identifies them as bramblings—arctic migrants that we have shot here in midwinter with full black heads—in " breeding-plumage" as some call it, though it is merely the result of the wearing-away of the original grey fringe to each feather, thus exposing the glossy violet-black bases. Birds, as a broad rule, possess no " ; They only renew their dress once a year, in the autumn, and breed the ' There are sand-lizards identical in colour with the sand itself—pale yellow or drab, adorned with wavy bl
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, booksubjecthunting, booksubjectnaturalhistory
