GLOSSY IBIS (_Plegadis falcinellus_).--Birds, as a rule, are strict geographists. They recognise fixed range-boundaries and abide thereby. But exceptions occur, and an instance has been offered by the glossy ibis. This bird has always been a conspicuous member of the teeming _pajaréras_, or mixed heronries, of our wooded swamps of Andalucia. But it was only as a spring-migrant that the ibis was known. It arrived in April and departed, after nesting, in September. A diluvial winter in 1907-8, however, apparently induced it to reconsider its "standing orders." Already, that autumn, the ibises had departed--as usual. But in December (the whole country meanwhile having been inundated) they suddenly reappeared. Small parties distributed themselves over the marismas, and with them came an unwonted profusion of other waders, stilts and curlews, whimbrels and godwits, the latter a month or two before their usual date. All availed the occasion to frequent far-inland spots, normally dry bush and forest, _nota quae sedes fuerat columbis_, and one saw flights of waders and even ducks, such as teal and shoveler, circling over flooded forest-glades. The changed quarters evidently met with approval, for each succeeding year since then we have had the company of ibises _during winter_. An immature ibis, shot January 30, otherwise in normal plumage, had the head and neck brownish grey with curlew-like striations. SLENDER-BILLED CURLEW (_Numenius tenuirostris_).--Years ago we wrote in our wrath, moved thereto by the constant misuse of the term, that such a thing as a "rare bird" does not exist, save only in a relative sense. Go to its proper home, wherever that may be, and the supposed rarity is found abundant as its own utility and nature's balances permit. Should some lost wanderer straggle a few hundred miles thence, it is proclaimed a "rare bird." Against this, our old mentor, Howard Saunders, wrote across the proof-sheet: "There ARE rare birds, some nearly extinct"; and the above species affords an admirable example of these exceptions to the general rule. No one at present knows the true home of the slender-billed curlew, nor the points (if any) where it is common, nor where it breeds. In southern Spain it appears every year during February and at no other season; while even then its visits are confined to a few days and to certain limited areas. The photo at p. 250 shows a beautiful pair shot February 5, 1898. When met with, they are rather conspicuous birds, distinguishable from whimbrel by their paler colour--indeed, on rising, the "slender-bills" look almost white. A specially favoured haunt in the Coto Doñana is the bare sandy flat in front of Martinazo. When we first studied ornithology there still remained whole categories of birds (many of them abundant British species) whose breeding-places were utterly unknown.