. Unexplored Spain. Hunting; Natural history. Flamingoes 269 that separated sea and sky over the greater part of the circle. On examining the different herds narrowly through binoculars, an obvious dissimilarity was discovered in the appearance of certain groups. One or two in particular seemed so much denser than the others; the narrow white line looked three times as thick, and in the centre gave the idea that the birds were literally piled upon each other. Felipe suggested that these flamingoes must be at their pajerera, or breeding-place, and after a long wet ride we found that this was th
. Unexplored Spain. Hunting; Natural history. Flamingoes 269 that separated sea and sky over the greater part of the circle. On examining the different herds narrowly through binoculars, an obvious dissimilarity was discovered in the appearance of certain groups. One or two in particular seemed so much denser than the others; the narrow white line looked three times as thick, and in the centre gave the idea that the birds were literally piled upon each other. Felipe suggested that these flamingoes must be at their pajerera, or breeding-place, and after a long wet ride we found that this was the case. The water was very deep, the bottom clinging mud; at intervals the laboured plung- ing of the mule was exchanged for an easier, gliding motion—he was swimming. The change was a welcome relief to man and. FLAMINGOES AND THEIR NESTS beast; but the labours undergone during these aquatic rides eventuated in the loss of one fine mule, a powerful beast worth £60. On approach, the cause of the peculiar appearance of the flamingo city from a distance became clearly discernible. Hundreds of birds were sitting down on a low mud-island, hundreds more were standing erect thereon, while others stood in the water alongside. Thus the difi"erent elevations of their bodies formed what had appeared a triple or quadruple line. On reaching the spot, we found a perfect mass of nests. The low, flat mud-plateau was crowded with them as thickly as its space permitted. The nests had little or no height above the dead-level mud—some were raised an inch or two, a few might reach four or five inches in height, but the majority were merely circular bulwarks of mud barely raised above the general. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original Chapman, Abel, 1851-1929; Buck, Walter John. joint author. London, E. Arnold
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, booksubjecthunting, booksubjectnaturalhistory
