. Wild Spain ... records of sport with rifle, rod, and gun, natural history and exploration . and looking almost white as he trottedaway across the dunes. Presently, through a vista of the forest, we sightedthe marisma, its muddy expanse to-day blue as theMediterranean. An animated scene lay before us ; thewastes were thronged with bird-life. The horizon glistenedwith the sheen of Flamingoes in thousands, and the inter-vening space lay streaked and dotted with flights andflotillas of aquatic fowl. The nearer foreshores, fringedwith rush and sedge and dark stretches of tamarisk, werepeopled wit
. Wild Spain ... records of sport with rifle, rod, and gun, natural history and exploration . and looking almost white as he trottedaway across the dunes. Presently, through a vista of the forest, we sightedthe marisma, its muddy expanse to-day blue as theMediterranean. An animated scene lay before us ; thewastes were thronged with bird-life. The horizon glistenedwith the sheen of Flamingoes in thousands, and the inter-vening space lay streaked and dotted with flights andflotillas of aquatic fowl. The nearer foreshores, fringedwith rush and sedge and dark stretches of tamarisk, werepeopled with Storks and Herons, Egrets, Spoonbills, Stilts,Avocets, and other waders. While breakfasting under aspreading pine, we observed commotion among ourfeathered neighbours—the whole multitude had risen onwing as a single Booted Eagle swept over the scene. liambling along the shore, we obtained many beautifulspecimens by stalking, including most of those abovenamed, as well as a pair of Marbled Ducks, a wild-cat, andother sundries. Presently we observed with the glass i ^ ■> > 5 1 .. fa D O o -fl ><! THE WILDERNESS MAY. 85 a score or so of Knots, in full red summer-plumage, busilyfeeding rather far out. While creeping to them, a Marsh-Harrier rose from some rushes close at hand ; I knockedhim down and found he was lunching on a Knot. Thelatter we could not see again—though later in the monththey were in thousands—but made out a bunch ofGreenshanks feeding a little further on, one of which fell toa long shot—an immature bird. Curiously, we found noadults here, though in March they were numerous in somedisused saliuas beyond Tangier, but no j^oung ones. Theadults are distinguishable by their whiter appearance at adistance. Our course lay across a wide bight of the marisma,which projects into the land. Crossing this, nearly knee-deep in mud and water in many parts, we fell in with threepacks of Sand-Grouse {Pterodes alchata). They were exces-sively wild,
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookidwildspainrecords00chapric
