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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Wild Spain (Espana agreste), by
+Abel Chapman and Walter J. Buck
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Wild Spain (Espana agreste)
+ Records of Sport with Rifle, Rod, and Gun, Natural History Exploration
+
+Author: Abel Chapman
+ Walter J. Buck
+
+Release Date: December 3, 2011 [EBook #38201]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WILD SPAIN (ESPANA AGRESTE) ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was
+produced from scanned images of public domain material
+from the Google Print project.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[etext transcriber's note: A few typographical errors have been
+corrected. The author's misspellings of Spanish words have not been
+corrected.]
+
+[Illustration: image of the book's cover]
+
+
+
+
+WILD SPAIN
+
+[Illustration: "TWO IBEX-HUNTERS."]
+
+[Illustration: Map illustrating
+
+"WILD SPAIN"
+
+BY
+
+ABEL CHAPMAN & W. J. BUCK.]
+
+
+
+
+WILD SPAIN
+
+(_ESPANA AGRESTE_)
+
+RECORDS OF
+
+SPORT WITH RIFLE, ROD, AND GUN,
+NATURAL HISTORY AND EXPLORATION
+
+BY
+
+ABEL CHAPMAN, F.Z.S.
+
+AUTHOR OF "BIRD-LIFE OF THE BORDERS"
+
+AND
+
+WALTER J. BUCK, C.M.Z.S., OF JEREZ
+
+_WITH 174 ILLUSTRATIONS, MOSTLY BY THE AUTHORS_
+
+[Illustration]
+
+LONDON
+GURNEY AND JACKSON, 1, PATERNOSTER ROW
+(SUCCESSORS TO MR. VAN VOORST)
+1893
+
+
+LONDON:
+PRINTED BY WOODFALL AND KINDER,
+70 TO 76, LONG ACRE, W.C.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+In "WILD SPAIN" we endeavour to describe a little-known land from a
+point of view hitherto almost unoccupied--that of the
+sportsman-naturalist. Many books have been written on Spain--some very
+good ones: but recent volumes chiefly confine themselves to the history,
+antiquities, architecture, &c., of the country, with their authors'
+impressions of the Spanish people. Such subjects find no place--save
+incidentally--in the present work, which systematically avoids the
+beaten track and essays to depict some of the unknown and more remote
+regions.
+
+During more than twenty years the authors have undertaken sporting
+expeditions into various parts of Spain--chiefly in Andalucia, but
+including, at one time or another, nearly all the western provinces from
+the Mediterranean to Biscay. A love of wild sport has been, perhaps, the
+leading motive; but the study of natural history has hardly been of
+secondary importance. In pursuit of these twin objects we have spared
+neither time nor trouble, spending weeks--sometimes months--at a time,
+in the sierras and wildernesses of Spain, bivouacing wherever night
+overtook us, or the chances of sport might dictate, and camping-out on
+the glorious snow-clad cordilleras.
+
+Our subjects are the wild-life and _ferae naturae_ of the
+Peninsula--including in the latter expression, by a slight stretch of
+the term, the brigand and the gypsy, with remarks on agriculture as
+cognate and supplementary. As far as convenient, the sequence of
+chapters follows the change of the seasons, commencing with spring-time.
+Hence the earlier part of the book is more concerned with natural
+history--though the pursuit of ibex and bustard may be followed in
+spring; while the latter half is more exclusively devoted to sport.
+
+Long residence in Spain has afforded opportunities which are not
+available to the casual traveller. Especially is this the case with
+sport, of which we have, at times, enjoyed some of the best that Spain
+affords. But it should be remarked that many of the shooting campaigns
+herein described have been on private and preserved grounds; and, while
+we naturally select the more fortunate records, we pass over in silence
+many a blank day and fruitless effort. Nearly all ground on which
+_large_ game is found, is preserved, with the exception of remote parts
+of the sierras, where wild pig and roe may be shot, and those higher
+mountain-ranges which form the home of ibex and chamois; moreover, while
+indicating in general terms the distribution of the various games and
+other animals, we have in many instances avoided naming precise
+localities.
+
+In describing a foreign land, it is impossible entirely to avoid the use
+of foreign terms for which, in many cases, no precise equivalents exist
+in English: but, to minimize this drawback, we append a glossary of all
+Spanish words used herein. Conversely, lest Spanish readers should
+misinterpret the title of this book, we have added a translation in the
+terms ESPANA AGRESTE.
+
+The illustrations consist of reproductions, either from photographs or
+from rough sketches in pen-and-ink and water-colours by the authors,
+whose only merit lies in their essaying to represent in their native
+haunts some of the least-known birds and beasts of Europe, several of
+which, it is probable, have never before been drawn from the life. If
+some of these sketches are not as satisfactory as we could have wished,
+the difficulties under which they were produced may serve as some
+excuse. At the last moment we have had some of them "translated" in
+London by Messrs. C. M. Sheldon and A. T. Elwes, and are also indebted
+to Miss M. E. Crawhall for several sepia-drawings made by her in Spain.
+
+It had been our intention to append a list of the birds of Spain, with
+their Spanish names and short notes on each species; but this we find
+would exceed our limits, and moreover the blanks and "missing links"
+still remain so numerous that we have abandoned--or at least
+deferred--that part of our programme. This may explain a certain want of
+continuity or coherence, in an ornithological sense.
+
+We are indebted to Lord Lilford and to Messrs. J. C. Forster and Ralph
+W. Bankes for several valuable notes and assistance, also to Admiral Sir
+M. Culme-Seymour for photographs taken in "Wild Spain"; while we cannot
+sufficiently express our gratitude to Mr. Howard Saunders, who has in
+the kindest manner gone through the proof-sheets, and whose long
+experience and intimate knowledge of Spain have been most generously
+placed within our reach. For any serious mistakes which may remain, the
+authors must be solely responsible.
+
+_December 31st, 1892._
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+ PAGE
+
+AN UNKNOWN CORNER OF EUROPE.
+
+ANDALUCIA AND HER MOUNTAIN-BARRIERS.
+
+i. Introductory 1
+
+ii. Life in the Sierras 13
+
+iii. A night at a _Posada_ 19
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+A BOAR-HUNT IN THE SIERRA 23
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+THE GREAT BUSTARD 33
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+BIG DAYS WITH BUSTARD.
+
+i. Jedilla 46
+
+ii. Santo Domingo--an Idyl 50
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+TAUROMACHIA.
+
+THE FIGHTING BULL OF SPAIN;
+
+Notes on his history: his breeds and rearing: and his
+life up to the _encierro_--_i.e._, the eve of his death 54
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE BAETICAN WILDERNESS.
+
+Spring-notes of bird-life, natural history and exploration in
+the marisma
+
+Part i.--April 70
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE BAETICAN WILDERNESS (_continued_).
+
+Part ii.--May 83
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+WILD CAMELS IN EUROPE 94
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+AMONG THE FLAMINGOES.
+
+Notes on their haunts and habits, and the discovery of their
+nesting-places 102
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+BRIGANDAGE IN SPAIN.
+
+SKETCHES OF TWO ROBBER-TYPES.
+
+i. Vizco el Borje 116
+
+ii. Agua Dulce 124
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+THE SPANISH IBEX.
+
+Notes on its natural history, haunts, habits and distribution 128
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+IBEX-SHOOTING IN SPAIN.
+
+i. Sierra de Gredos (Old Castile) 140
+
+ii. Riscos de Valderejo 150
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+IBEX-SHOOTING IN SPAIN (_continued_).
+
+iii. Sierra Bermeja (Mediterranean) 157
+
+iv. Nevada and the Alpujarras. Ten days in a snow-cave 166
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+TROUT AND TROUTING IN SPAIN.
+
+i. Castile, etc. 173
+
+ii. Santander 179
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+TROUTING IN THE ASTURIAS AND IN LEON 183
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+EXPERIENCES WITH EAGLES.
+
+i. Forest and plain 188
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+FURTHER EXPERIENCES WITH EAGLES AND VULTURES.
+
+ii. Chiefly relating to the Sierra 205
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+ON SPANISH AGRICULTURE.
+
+i. Cereals, green crops, etc. 220
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+ON SPANISH AGRICULTURE (_continued_).
+
+ii. The olive 231
+
+iii. Horse-breeding and live stock 233
+
+iv. Supplement 236
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+BIRD-LIFE OF THE SPANISH SPRING-TIME.
+
+i. The _pinales_, or pine-region 238
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+BIRD-LIFE OF THE SPANISH SPRING-TIME (_continued_).
+
+ii. The cistus-plains and prairies 250
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+BIRD-LIFE OF THE SPANISH SPRING-TIME (_continued_).
+
+iii. By lake and lagoon 266
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+THE SPANISH GYPSY.
+
+Notes on the history of the "Gitanos" 277
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+THE SPANISH GYPSY OF TO-DAY 287
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+IN SEARCH OF THE LAeMMERGEYER.
+
+A winter ride in the Sierras 293
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+THE HOME OF THE LAeMMERGEYER 307
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+RAMON AND THE TWO BIG RAMS.
+
+An incident of Ibex-stalking 316
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+THE IBEX-HUNTER'S BETROTHAL 320
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+ON VITICULTURE IN SPAIN AND PORTUGAL 325
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+SOME FURTHER NOTES ON THE GREAT BUSTARD.
+
+His natural history and habits 338
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+THE LITTLE BUSTARD 343
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+A WINTER CAMPAIGN IN DONANA 348
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+WILDFOWLING IN THE WILDERNESS.
+
+i. A wet winter 371
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+WILDFOWLING IN THE WILDERNESS (_continued_).
+
+ii. A dry season (flight-shooting) 384
+
+iii. An Arctic winter 392
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+THE STANCHION-GUN IN SPAIN 395
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+DEER-DRIVING IN THE PINE-FORESTS.
+
+My first stag 405
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+WINTER IN THE MARSHES.
+
+i. Snipe-shooting 417
+
+ii. Cranes, storks, and bitterns 420
+
+iii. Miscellaneous marsh-birds 424
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+
+DEER-STALKING AND "STILL-HUNTING."
+
+On the Southern plains 428
+
+
+APPENDIX.
+
+PART I.
+
+THE LARGE GAME OF SPAIN AND PORTUGAL,
+
+With notes on other Spanish Mammalia 437
+
+Red Deer 437
+
+Fallow Deer 438
+
+The Roebuck in Spain 439
+
+The Spanish Ibex 440
+
+The Chamois 441
+
+The Bear 442
+
+Wild Boar 443
+
+Wolf and Fox 444-5
+
+Spanish Lynx 446
+
+Smaller beasts 447 _et seq._
+
+
+PART II.
+
+SPRING-MIGRANTS TO SPAIN,
+
+With dates of arrival, etc., in Andalucia 450
+
+
+PART III.
+
+i. Spring-notes in Navarre 454
+
+ii. Supplementary notes on birds (Southern Spain) 457
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+
+PLATE NO. PAGE
+
+i. Map of Spain and Portugal _Frontispiece_
+
+An Andaluz 3
+
+A Granadino 4
+
+Basque peasant 5
+
+ii. Relics of the Moors--Ruins of the Watch-tower of
+Melgarejo _To face_ 6
+
+Fair Sevillanas 8
+
+A _choza:_ the home of the Andalucian peasant 13
+
+iii. Pair of Civil Guards--Jerez _To face_ 14
+
+A water-seller 18
+
+iv. Daughters of Andalucia _To face_ 19
+
+Dancers with castanets 20
+
+A village _posada_ 21
+
+"Furniture" 25
+
+Our quarters in the Sierra 26
+
+A straight charge (wild boar) 30
+
+v. "That old tusker" (wild boar) _To face_ 31
+
+A mule with trappings 32
+
+vi. Bustards on the barrens--winter;--a first shade of
+suspicion _To face_ 33
+
+vii. Watering the cattle--summer-time _To face_ 35
+
+Great Bustard--_echando la rueda_ 39
+
+viii. Bustard-driving--the pack come "well in" _To face_ 40
+
+Great Bustards--an April dawn 43
+
+ix. " " --among the spring-corn _To face_ 48
+
+The Bustard-shooter--triumph! 51
+
+x. Ancient draw-well on the plains _To face_ 52
+
+xi. Bulls on the plains _To face_ 57
+
+xii. The morn of the Fight--Bulls in the _toril_ (Miura's
+breed) _To face_ 61
+
+xiii. The _Encierro_ _To face_ 65
+
+A Bull-fighter 66
+
+A Matador 68
+
+Fishing-boat on the Guadalquivir 78
+
+Flamingoes 74, 102 and 115
+
+Avocets 77, 82 and 87
+
+Stilts 70, 86 and 92
+
+xiv. Booted Eagle _To face_ 81
+
+xv. Pintailed Sand-Grouse _To face_ 85
+
+Grey Plovers--summer-plumage 89
+
+xvi. The Spanish Wild Camels--our first sight of a couple
+in the marisma _To face_ 94
+
+xvii. Wild Camels--seen through the binoculars _To face_ 98
+
+Flamingoes on feed 104
+
+A right-and-left at Flamingoes 106
+
+Spanish Lynx 107
+
+A toilet in the wilderness (Flamingoes) 109
+
+Flamingoes and nests 111
+
+xviii. Flamingoes on their nests _To face_ 112
+
+Civil Guards--a sketch from life 121
+
+Draw-well at the Zumajo, near Jerez 127
+
+Spanish Ibex, Old Ram--Sierra de Gredos 131
+
+---- ---- ---- Sierra Nevada 133, 135, and 170
+
+xix. On the crags of Almanzor (Ibex) _To face_ 137
+
+Old olive-trees near Talavera 139
+
+xx. Ibex-hunting--a sketch in the Sierra de Gredos _To face_ 141
+
+Our first old Ram 145
+
+xxi. Ibex-hunting--the two old Rams at the "Cannon-Rock" _To face_ 148
+
+The peaks of Gredos 149
+
+xxii. Our camp on the Riscos de Valderejo _To face_ 152
+
+Ibex-hunters of Gredos--a sketch by the camp-fire 154
+
+Ibex, female--Riscos de Valderejo 155
+
+---- ---- Bermeja 158
+
+xxiii. Ibex-hunting--a sketch in the Sierra Bermeja _To face_ 161
+
+Forest Ibex, old Ram--Bermeja 164
+
+Trout 175, 182, and 186
+
+Chamois 179 and 442
+
+Spanish Imperial Eagle 190, 198, and 219
+
+---- ---- (Spotted stage) 193
+
+---- ---- The Eagle's swoop 262
+
+Tawny Eagle 195
+
+Black Vulture 201 and 202
+
+At roost--Serpent-Eagles 204
+
+xxiv. A Vulture's banquet _To face_ 206
+
+Griffon Vulture and nest--Puerta de Palomas 208
+
+Strange neighbours (Vultures and Storks) 209
+
+xxv. "Where the carcase is" _To face_ 213
+
+Bonelli's Eagle (adult) 217 and 383
+
+xxvi. Ploughing with oxen _To face_ 221
+
+Wooden ploughshare 224
+
+xxvii. The harvest-field _To face_ 225
+
+xxviii. Threshing corn with mares _To face_ 226
+
+xxix. Winnowing _To face_ 228
+
+"Waiting for death" (old olive-trees) 232
+
+xxx. Kites and Marsh-Harriers _To face_ 242
+
+xxxi. Sand-dunes and _Corrales_ of Donana _To face_ 245
+
+Hoopoes 248
+
+A serenade (Red-leg Partridge) 251
+
+Azure-winged Magpies 258
+
+Eyed Lizard and Serpent-Eagle 260
+
+Black Stork 265
+
+xxxii. Mallards and Ferruginous Ducks--Alamillo _To face_ 268
+
+xxxiii. White-fronted Ducks--Santolalla _To face_ 270
+
+Buff-backed Heron 83 and 272
+
+Marsh-Harrier--very old male 274
+
+Summer evening--Owls and Moths 276
+
+xxxiv. Dancers at Granada--the _Bolero_ _To face_ 289
+
+Gypsy lad 290
+
+Gypsy dance 292
+
+Laemmergeyer--a first impression 295
+
+Dance and guitar 297
+
+Griffon Vulture (a sketch from life) 303
+
+"Roses in Spain" 306
+
+xxxv. Laemmergeyer--a sketch from life in the Sierra
+Bermeja _To face_ 309
+
+Our quarters at Guentar del Rio 312
+
+Ibex-head--Sierra de Gredos 319
+
+xxxvi. Vineyard and gateway _To face_ 325
+
+Vines in March (Jerez) 326
+
+xxxvii. In a Jerez Bodega _To face_ 328
+
+xxxviii. Irrigation by the _noria_, or water-wheel _To face_ 334
+
+A vineyard at Jerez 336
+
+Great Bustards 337 and 340
+
+Little Bustards--May 345
+
+xxxix. A Spanish jungle--The Angosturas _To face_ 348
+
+Fishing-boats 349
+
+xl. Palacio de Donana _To face_ 350
+
+xli. Breakfast-time--Donana _To face_ 352
+
+A royal head--Donana 354
+
+Dead Lynx 355
+
+Group of forest-guards 357
+
+Pannier-pony and game 358
+
+Spanish Red Deer--a mountain-head from Morena 360 and 430
+
+---- a stag of thirteen points 363
+
+xlii. Spanish wildfowlers approaching duck with _cabresto_
+ponies _To face_ 365
+
+xliii. A shot in the open (Red Deer) _To face_ 367
+
+Wild Boar--an old tusker 368
+
+xliv. Salavar--a sketch in a Spanish _Mancha_ _To face_ 369
+
+xlv. Wildfowling with _cabrestos_--
+
+---- ---- No. 1. The approach _To face_ 372
+
+xlvi. ---- ---- No. 2. The shot _To face_ 374
+
+xlviii. ---- ---- No. 3. The result _To face_ 381
+
+"_Anseres son!_" 377
+
+Greylag Geese flighting--daybreak 378
+
+xlvii. Grey Geese and Wigeon--midday _To face_ 378
+
+Marsh-Harrier (young) 380
+
+xlix. "The farewell shot" _To face_ 382
+
+Mallards 387
+
+Grey Geese 390 and 391
+
+l. Redshanks (101 and) _To face_ 393
+
+Stilts 396 and 404
+
+Little Gull and Tern 398
+
+li. "A Hundred at a Shot--now or never!" _To face_ 400
+
+"The Biter and the Bit" (Harrier and Teal) 401
+
+lii. La Marismilla--a shooting morning _To face_ 405
+
+Spanish guns 411
+
+"The eleven-pointer" (Red Deer) 413
+
+A fifteen-pointer (Red Deer) 414
+
+"Dropped in his tracks" (Wild Boar) 416
+
+Stork's nest--The Banderas, Seville 422
+
+---- ---- on straw-stack 459
+
+Spanish Lynx 436
+
+Spanish Ibex--Five-year-old Rams 440
+
+
+
+
+WILD SPAIN.
+
+(ESPANA AGRESTE.)
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+AN OLD-WORLD CORNER OF EUROPE.
+
+ANDALUCIA AND HER MOUNTAIN-BARRIERS.
+
+Among European countries Spain stands unique in regard to the range of
+her natural and physical features. In no other land can there be found,
+within a similar area, such extremes of scene and climate as
+characterize the 400 by 400 miles of the Iberian Peninsula. Switzerland
+has alpine regions loftier and more imposing, Russia vaster steppes, and
+Norway more arctic scenery: but nowhere else in Europe do arctic and
+tropic so nearly meet as in Spain. Contrast, for example, the stern
+grandeur of the Sierra Nevada, wrapped in eternal snow, with the almost
+tropical luxuriance of the Mediterranean shores which lie at its feet.
+
+Nor is any European country so largely abandoned to nature: nature in
+wildest primeval garb, untouched by man, untamed and glorious in
+pristine savagery. The immense extent of rugged sierras which intersect
+the Peninsula partly explains this; but a certain sense of insecurity
+and a hatred of rural life inherent in the Spanish breast are still more
+potent factors. The Spanish people, rich and poor, congregate in town or
+village, and vast stretches of the "campo," as they call it, are thus
+left uninhabited, _despoblados_--relinquished to natural conditions, to
+the wild beasts of the field and the birds of the air. Perhaps in this
+respect the semi-savage regions of the far East, the provinces of the
+Balkans and of classic Olympus, most nearly approach, though they cannot
+rival, the splendid abandonment of rural Spain. And as a nation, the
+Spanish people vary _inter se_ in almost the same degree. It is, in
+fact, that characteristic of Iberia which is reflected in the
+picturesque diversity of the Iberians.
+
+One cause which tends to explain these divergences, racial and physical,
+is the exceptionally high mean elevation of the Peninsula above
+sea-level. Spain is a highland plateau; a huge table-mountain,
+intersected by ranges of still loftier mountains, but devoid of low-land
+over a large proportion of its area, save in certain river-valleys and
+in the comparatively narrow strips of land, or alluvial belts, that
+adjoin the sea-board--chiefly in its southernmost province, Andalucia.
+
+Few nations live at so great an average elevation. The cities of London,
+Paris, Berlin, St. Petersburg, all the Scandinavian capitals, and even
+Lisbon, stand at, or a little above, sea-level; Vienna, Moscow, and
+Dresden have elevations of only a few hundred feet; but Madrid is
+perched at 2,384 feet, with the snow-fields of Guadarrama overlooking
+the Puerta del Sol, while a large area of Central Spain, comprising the
+Castiles, Aragon and Navarre, is of even greater altitude. Thus Burgos
+stands at 2,873 feet; Segovia, 2,299; Granada, 2,681; and the Escorial
+at 3,686 feet.
+
+These central table-lands, exposed to a tropical sun, become torrid,
+tawny deserts in summer; in winter--owing rather to rarefied air than to
+very low temperatures--they are subject to a severity of cold unknown in
+our more temperate clime, and to biting blasts from the Alpujarras, the
+Guadarrama, and other mountain ranges which intersect the uplands, and
+on which snow lies throughout the year, contrasting strangely in the
+dog-days with the pitiless heat of summer and the intensity of the azure
+background.
+
+Of different type is the mountain region of the north--the Cantabrian
+Highlands bordering on Biscay, the Basque Provinces, Galicia and the
+Asturias, offshoots of the Pyrenean system. There the country is almost
+Scandinavian in type, with deeply rifted valleys, rapid salmon-rivers,
+and rushing mountain-torrents abounding in trout; and an alpine fauna
+including the chamois and bear, ptarmigan, hazel-grouse, and
+capercaillie. That is a land of rock, snow, and mist-wreath, of birch
+and pine-forest: abrupt and untilled, wind-swept and wet as a West
+Highland moor, the very antithesis of the smiling province which most
+concerns us now--Andalucia. This, more African than Africa, in spring,
+autumn and winter is a paradise, the _huerta_ of Europe, low-lying and
+protected by the sierras of Nevada and Morena from the deadly breath of
+the central plateau; but in the four summer months an _infierno_, where
+every green thing is burnt up by a fiery sun, where shade is not, and
+where life is only endurable by discarding European habits and adopting
+those of Moorish or Oriental races.
+
+[Illustration: AN ANDALUZ.]
+
+Naturally such contrasts of climate and country re-act upon the
+character of the denizens--be they human or _ferae naturae_--of a land
+which includes within its boundaries nearly all the physical conditions
+of Europe and Northern Africa. But it is the peculiar mental cast and
+temperament of the Spanish race, as much as the physical causes alluded
+to, that have developed those clean-cut differences that to-day
+distinguish the various Iberian provinces. It is the self-sufficiency,
+the "provincialism," and careless unthinking disposition of the
+individual, as much as mountain-barriers, that have separated adjacent
+provinces as effectually as broad oceans.
+
+[Illustration: A GRANADINO.]
+
+[Illustration: BASQUE PEASANT.]
+
+Though springing from a common root, _i.e._, the blend of Roman and
+Phoenician blood with the aboriginal tribes of Iberia, the
+vicissitudes of twelve centuries of history, with its successive foreign
+invasions and occupations, have materially modified the racial
+characteristics of the Spanish people. The Latin element still
+predominates, both in type and tongue: but Semitic, Aryan, and even
+Turanian strains are all present. The Spanish nation of to-day is
+composed rather of a congeries of heterogeneous peoples and provinces,
+once separate kingdoms, and still incapable of coherence or of fusion
+into a concrete whole, than of sections of a single race. Compare the
+sturdy and industrious, albeit somewhat phlegmatic, Galician, the happy
+despised bondsman, the hewer of wood and drawer of water of the
+Peninsula, with the gay and careless Andaluz who spurns and derides him:
+or the fiery temperament of aristocratic Castile and Navarre with the
+commercial instincts of Catalonia and the north-east. Probably the most
+perfect example of natural nobility is afforded by the peasant
+proprietor of pastoral Leon; then there is a pelt-clad, root-grubbing
+_homo sylvestris_ peculiar to Estremenian wilds, who awaits attention of
+ethnologists. There are the Basques of Biscay--Tartar-sprung or
+Turanian, Finnic or surviving aborigines, let philologists decide; at
+any rate, a race by themselves, distinct in dress and habit, in laws and
+language, from all the rest. Reserved, but courteous and reliable, the
+Basques are dangerously ready for their much-prized _fueros_ to plunge
+their country in civil war.[1] The differences which to-day distinguish
+these allied races are as deep and defined as those which stand between
+themselves and the foreigner of alien blood. But we are rambling, and
+must remember that in this chapter we only propose to deal with
+
+
+ANDALUCIA.
+
+Often and well as in bygone days this sunny province has been described,
+yet the modern life and nineteenth-century conditions of rural Andalucia
+are now comparatively unknown--have fallen into oblivion amid the more
+ambitious and eventful careers of other countries. And, indeed, there is
+needed the genius of a Cervantes or a Ford adequately to depict or
+portray the quaint and picturesque _ensemble_ of this old-world corner
+of Europe, so distinct from all the rest, and unchanged since the days
+of Don Quixote. Spain, the land of anomaly and paradox, is a complex
+theme not lightly to be understood or described by aliens, albeit
+possessed of that first qualification, the passport to every Spanish
+heart--a sympathetic nature. Around the country and its people, around
+everything Spanish, there hangs, in our eyes, a grace and an infinite
+charm; but it is a subtle charm, hardly to be described or defined in
+words of ours.
+
+The very inertia, the mediaeval conditions thinly veneered, which
+characterize modern Andalucia in an era of insensate haste and
+self-assertion, prove to some a solace and a fascination. There are not
+wanting minds which, amidst different environments, can enjoy and admire
+such primitive simplicity--stagnation, if you will--and find therein a
+grateful and refreshing change. In Southern Spain life is dreamed away
+in sunshine and in an atmosphere forgetful of the present, but redolent
+of the past. The modern Andaluz is content _de s'ecouter vivre_, while
+the ancient chivalry of his race and his land's romantic history is
+evidenced by crumbling castle on each towering height; by the
+palace-fortresses and magnificent ecclesiastical fabrics of the middle
+ages: while the abandoned aqueducts, disused highways and broken bridges
+of the Roman period, attest a bygone energy.
+
+[Illustration: Plate II. RELICS OF THE MOORS--RUINS OF THE WATCH-TOWER
+OF MELGAREJO. Page 6.]
+
+Andalucia is a land of vine-clad slopes and _olivares_; of boundless
+prairies and corn lands where rude old-world tillage leaves undisturbed
+the giant of European game-birds, the Great Bustard, pushed back by
+modern cultivation from northern fields; a land of vast trackless heaths
+aromatic of myrtle and mimosa, lentisk and palmetto, alternating with
+park-like self-sown woods of cork-oak and chestnut, ilex and wild olive,
+carpeted between in spring-time with wondrous wealth of flowers--lonely
+scenes, rarely traversed save by the muleteer. For Spain is a land where
+the mule and donkey still represent the chief means of transport--not
+yet, nor for many a year, to be displaced by steam and rail. Through
+every mountain-pass, along every glen of her sierras, across each
+scrub-clad plain and torrid _dehesa_, still file long teams of laden
+pack animals urged townwards by sullen muleteer: or, when returning to
+his _pueblo_ among the hills, himself and beasts in happier mood, and
+sitting sideways on the hind-most, he sings his songs of love and wrong,
+no tune or words of modern ring, but those in which the history of his
+race is told; now sinking to a dirge-like cadence, anon in high-pitched
+protests of defiance--songs that ever have been sung since the Arab held
+his sway over a proud but conquered people. Truly the _arriero_ is a
+type of rural Spain: his monotonous chant, and the gaudy trappings of
+his mule-team appearing and disappearing with every winding of the
+mountain-track, bespeak the spirit of the sierra. In all these and in a
+host of cognate scenes and sounds, in the grandeur of untamed nature,
+and in the freedom and inborn grace of a rarely favoured people, there
+springs a perennial charm to the traveller, a restful refreshing draught
+of _laissez faire_, and a glimpse into a long-past epoch that can hardly
+be enjoyed elsewhere in Europe. Here of old fierce fights were fought
+for this rich prize in soil and climate; its fabled fertility attracting
+hither in turn the legions of Rome, the Goths, and, last, the Moorish
+hordes, to conquer and to hold for seven hundred years.
+
+[Illustration: FAIR SEVILLANAS.]
+
+The Province of Andalucia with its corn-plains and vineyards, orange
+and olive-groves, barren wastes and lonely _marismas_, covers a stretch
+of three hundred miles from east to west, and half that extent in depth;
+and is bounded--save on the Atlantic front--by an unbroken circle of
+sierras. Commencing at Tarifa on the south, the mountain-barrier is
+carried past Gibraltar and Malaga to the Sierra Nevada, whose snow-clad
+summits reach 12,000 feet; and beyond, on the east, by the Almerian
+spurs. Nestling in the lap of this long southern range lies the narrow
+belt of "Africa in Europe," above alluded to, where, secured from
+northern winds and facing the blue Mediterranean, grow even cotton and
+the sugar-cane; while the date-palm, _algarrobo_ or carob-tree, the
+banana, quince, citron, lemon, and pomegranate, with other sub-tropical
+plants, flourish in this Spanish Riviera. Then, from the easternmost
+point of the province, the Sagres Mountains continue the rock-barrier to
+the point where the Sierra Morena separates the sunny life of Andalucia
+from the barrenness of La Mancha and primitive Estremadura. These grim
+and almost unbroken solitudes of the Sierra Morena form the entire
+northern boundary, continued by the Sierra de Aroche to the frontier of
+Portugal, and thence, by a lesser chain, to the Atlantic once more. The
+short coastline between Trafalgar and Huelva thus forms, as it were, the
+only opening to this favoured land, secure in a mountain-setting--the
+gem for which contending races fought for centuries, and from whose
+southernmost rock the British flag floats over the bristling battlements
+of Gibraltar.
+
+To see Andalucia, the traveller must ride. In a wide and wild land,
+where distances are great and the heat greater, where roads, rail, and
+bridges exist not, the saddle is the only means of locomotion. In Spain
+nothing can be done on foot: in a land of _caballeros_ even the poorest
+bestrides his _borrico_. The traveller becomes an integral part of his
+beast, and his resting-place, the village _posada_, is half-inn,
+half-stable, where he must provide for the needs of his four-footed
+friend before he thinks of his own. A ride through the wilder regions,
+and especially among the sierras, involves, however, an amount of
+forethought and provision that, to those unacquainted with the _cosas de
+Espana_, would be well nigh incredible. In the open country no one
+lives, and nothing can be obtained, or, at least, it is unsafe to rely
+on it for anything. Thus one is obliged to carry from the town all the
+necessaries of life--an elastic, indefinite expression, it is true. What
+serves amply for one man may imply discomfort and misery to another:
+still, there remains for all an irreducible minimum, and only those who
+have tested their requirements in the field know how numerous and bulky
+remains this absolutely indispensable "balance." First there is provend
+for the beasts; heavy sacks of grain, straw, &c., necessitating mules to
+carry them, and this, in turn, nearly doubling the quantity. Thus an
+expedition of a fortnight or so signifies nothing less than the
+transport of huge mule-loads of impedimenta, the most bulky of which are
+for the use of the beasts themselves: though the indispensables for
+their riders are considerable--bread, meat, eggs and oranges, skins of
+wine, and, in most cases, tents with all the paraphernalia of
+camp-outfit, cooking apparatus, and the rest.
+
+Burdened with all this cargo, and in a rough country where each
+traveller makes his own road--since no others exist--progress is slow:
+through jungle, broken ground or wood, the wayfarer steers by compass,
+landmark, or instinct--sometimes by the lack of the latter, as he finds
+too late. Deep bits of bog and frequent lagoons must be circumvented,
+and rivers forded where no "fords" exist: an operation which, owing to
+the deep mud and treacherous ground bordering the sluggish southern
+rivers, often involves off-loading, carrying across in detail, and
+restowing on the other bank--a troublesome business, especially after
+dark.
+
+In this land of surprises, the _pays de l'imprevu_, it is the unexpected
+that always occurs. Seldom does a ride through the wilder regions of
+Spain pass without incident. Thus once we were carried off as prisoners
+by the Civil Guard--not having with us our _cedulas de vecindad_--and
+taken forty miles for the purpose of identification: or the way may be
+intercepted by that fraternity whose ideas of _meum_ and _tuum_ are
+somewhat mixed; or, worse still, as twice happened to us, by a fighting
+bull. One _toro bravo_, having escaped in a frenzy of rage from a herd
+whose pasturage had been moved fifty miles up the country, was occupying
+a narrow cactus-hedged lane near his old haunts, and completely barred
+the way, attacking right and left all who appeared on the scene. Warning
+of the danger ahead was given us at a wayside shanty where the _ventero_
+and his wife had sought refuge on the roof. Nothing remained but to
+clear the way and rid the district of a dangerous brute already maddened
+by a wound with small shot. Leaving the horses in safety, we proceeded
+on foot to the attack, two of us strategically covering the advance
+behind the shelter of the cactus; while our _cazador_, Jose Larrios,
+boldly strode up the lane. No sooner had he appeared round a bend in the
+fence than the bull was in full charge. A bullet from the "flank gun,"
+luckily placed, staggered him, and a second from Jose, crashing on his
+lowered front, at five yards, ended his career. When the authorities
+sent out next morning to bring in the meat, nothing was found remaining
+except the horns and the hoofs! On another occasion, when driving tandem
+into the town of P----, we met, face to face, a _novillo_ or
+three-year-old bull which, according to a custom of tauromachian Spain,
+was being baited in the public streets. We only escaped by driving
+across the shrubberies and flower-beds of the Alameda. In the former
+case we received the thanks of the municipality: in the other, were
+condemned to pay a fine![2]
+
+Another ride was saddened by finding on the wayside the body of a
+murdered man; his mule stood patiently by, and there we left them in the
+gloom of gathering night. On all the bye-ways of Spain, and along the
+bridle-paths of the sierras, one sees little memorial tablets or rude
+wooden crosses, bearing silent witness to such deeds of violence,
+according to Spanish custom:--
+
+ "Below there in the dusky pass
+ Was wrought a murder dread,
+ The murdered fell upon the grass,
+ Away the murderer fled."[3]
+
+On more than one occasion our armed hunting-expeditions in the wilds
+have been mistaken--not perhaps without reason, so far as external
+appearances go--for a gang of _mala gente_; and their sudden appearance
+has struck dire dismay in the breasts of peaceful peasants and
+_arrieros_, with convoys of corn-laden donkeys, till reassured by the
+brazen voice of Blas or Antonio--"_Ole, amigos! Aqui no hay mano negra,
+ni blanca tampoco!_"--which we give in Spanish, as it is not readily
+translatable at once into English and sense. On two occasions in the
+Castiles has our advent to some hamlet of the sierra been hailed with
+joy as that of a strolling company of acrobats! "_Mira los
+Titeres!_--Here come the mountebanks!" sing out the ragged urchins of
+the plaza, as our cavalcade with its tent-poles, camp-gear, and, to
+them, foreign-looking baggage, filed up the narrow street.
+
+It is, however, unnecessary here to recapitulate all the curious
+incidents of travel, nor to recount the difficulties and troubles by
+which the wayfarer in Spanish wilds may find himself beset--many such
+incidents will be found related hereinafter. Sport and the natural
+beauties of this unknown land are ample reward, and among the other
+attractions of Andalucian travel may be numbered that of at least a
+spice of the spirit of adventure.
+
+This flavour of danger gives zest to many a distant ramble: of personal
+molestation we have luckily had but little experience, although at times
+associated in sport with _serranos_ of more than dubious repute, for the
+Spaniard is loyal to his friend. At intervals the country has been
+seething with agrarian discontent and sometimes with overt rebellion. On
+more than one occasion the bullets have been whistling pretty freely
+about the streets, and the surrounding _campina_ was, for the time,
+practically in the hands of an armed, lawless peasantry. In addition to
+these exceptional but recurrent periods of turmoil and anarchist frenzy,
+there exists a permanent element of lawlessness in the _contrabandistas_
+from the coast, who permeate the sierras in all directions with their
+mule-loads of tobacco, cottons, ribbons, threads, and a thousand odds
+and ends, many of which have run the blockade of the "lines" of
+Gibraltar. The propinquity--actual or imaginary--of _mala gente_, often
+causes real inconvenience while camping in the sierra, such as the
+necessity of seeking at times the insectiferous refuge of some village
+_posada_ instead of enjoying the freedom of the open hill; or of having
+to put out the fire at nightfall, which prevents the cooking of dinner,
+preparing specimens, or writing up notes, &c.
+
+
+LIFE IN THE SIERRAS.
+
+[Illustration: A _CHOZA_: THE HOME OF THE ANDALUCIAN PEASANT.]
+
+As the sinuous, ill-defined mule-track leaves the plain and strikes the
+rising ground, the signs of man's presence become rapidly scarcer; for
+none, save the very poorest, live outside the boundaries of town or
+village. For mile after mile the track traverses the thickets of wild
+olive and lentiscus; here a whole hillside glows with the pink bloom of
+rhododendron, or acres of asphodel clothe a barren patch; but not so
+much as a solitary _choza_, the rude reed-built hut of a goatherd, can
+be seen. Now the path merges in the bed of some winter torrent, rugged
+and boulder-strewn, but shaded with bay and laurestinus, and a fringe of
+magnificent oleanders; anon we flounder through deep deposits of
+alluvial mud bordered by waving brakes of giant canes and briar,
+presently to strike again the upward track through evergreen forests of
+chestnut and cork-oak.
+
+The silence and solitude of hours--that perfect loneliness
+characteristic of highland regions--is broken at last by a human
+greeting so unexpected and startling, that the rider instinctively
+checks his horse, and grasps the gun which hangs in the slings by his
+side. But alarm is soon allayed as a pair of Civil Guards on their
+well-appointed mounts emerge from some sheltering thicket, and command
+the way. The _guardias civiles_ patrol the Spanish hills in pairs by day
+and night, for it is through the passes of the sierra that the inland
+towns are supplied with contraband from the coast, and all travellers
+are subject to the scrutiny of these sharp-eyed cavalry. Yet, despite
+the vigilance of this fine corps and their coadjutors the carbineers,
+the smuggler manages to live and to drive a thriving trade. Possessing a
+beast of marvellous agility and tried endurance, he carries his cargo of
+cottons or tobacco--the unexcised output of Malaga or Gibraltar--across
+the sierras, by devious paths and break-neck passes which would appear
+impracticable, save to a goat; and this, too, generally by night.
+
+Towns are few and far between among the mountains, and the rare villages
+often cluster picturesquely on the ridge of some stupendous crag like
+eagles' eyries: positions chosen for their strength centuries ago, and
+nothing changes in Spain. It is not considered safe for well-to-do
+people to live on their possessions of cork-woods and cattle-runs, and
+few of that class are ever to be seen in the sierras, while those whom
+business or necessity takes from one town to another naturally choose
+the route which is, as they term it, "_mas acompanado_," _i.e._, most
+frequented, even though it be three times as long--in Spanish phrase,
+"_no hay atajo sin trabajo_." A wanderer from these _veredas_ is looked
+upon with a suspicion which experience has shown is not ill-founded.
+
+[Illustration: Plate III. PAIR OF CIVIL GUARDS--JEREZ. Page 14.]
+
+One evidence of human presence is, however, inevitably in sight--the
+blue, curling smoke of the charcoal-burners, the sign of a wasteful
+process that is ruthlessly destroying the silent beauties of the sierra.
+Every tree, shrub, or bush has to go to provide fuel for the universal
+_puchero_. No other firing is used for kitchen purposes; no houses, save
+a few of the richest, have fireplaces or cooking-apparatus other than
+the charcoal _anafe_--with its triple blow-holes, through which the
+smouldering embers are fanned with a grass-woven mat (_see_ cut at p.
+22)--and its accompaniments, the _casuela_ and clay _olla_. The mountain
+forest is his only resource: yet the careless Andaluz never dreams of
+the future, or of planting trees to replace those he burns to-day.
+
+Hence year by year the land becomes ever more treeless, barren, and
+naked; whole hill-ranges which only twenty years ago were densely clad
+with thickets of varied growth, the lair of boar and roe, are now
+denuded and disfigured. The blackened circle, the site of a
+charcoal-furnace, attests the destructive handiwork of man. If one
+expostulates with the _carboneros_, or laments the destruction wrought,
+their reply is always the same:--"The land will now become _tierra de
+pan_," or corn-land, of which there is already more than enough for the
+labour available.
+
+In some upland valley one comes across a colony of _carboneros_ who have
+settled down on some clearing under agreement with the owner to cut and
+prepare for market. These woodmen are either paid so much per quintal,
+or obtain the use of the land in return for clearing and reducing it
+into order for corn-growing. No rent is asked for the first five years,
+or if any be paid, a portion of the crop is usually the landlord's
+share. During the first few years, these disafforested lands are highly
+productive, the virgin soil, enriched by carbonized refuse, yielding as
+much as sixty bushels to the acre. The _carboneros_ lead a lonely life,
+except when their sequestered colony is enlivened by the arrival of the
+_arrieros_ with their donkey-teams, to load up the produce for the
+nearest towns.
+
+Fortunately for the Spanish forests, there are two circumstances that
+tend to limit their destruction. First there is the value of the
+cork-oak; for, besides its bark, which is stripped and sold every seven
+years, its crops of acorns fatten droves of shapely black swine during
+autumn and winter, and a substance is obtained beneath the bark which is
+used in curing leather. Hence the forests of noble _alcornoques_ escape
+the ruthless hatchet of the _carbonero_. The other limit is the cost of
+transport which restricts his operations to within a certain distance of
+the towns which form his market. Beyond this radius the forests retain
+their native pristine beauty: under their shade are pastured herds of
+cattle, and a rude hut, built of undressed stones and thatched with
+reeds, forms the lonely casa of the herdsman. By day and night he guards
+his cattle or goats, often having to sleep on the hill, or under the
+scant shelter of a lentisco, for which he receives about eightpence a
+day, with an allowance of bread, oil, salt, and vinegar. His wife and
+children of course share his lonely lot, their only touch with the outer
+world being a chance visit, once or twice a year, to their native
+village.
+
+Our rough friend, clad in leather or woolly sheepskin, is a sportsman by
+nature, and can "hold straight" on his favourite quarry, the rabbit,
+whose habits he thoroughly understands. The walls of his hut are seldom
+unadorned with an ancient fowling-piece: generally a converted
+"flinter," modernized with percussion lock, and having an enormous
+exterior spring for its motive power. When the long, honey-combed barrel
+has been duly fed with Spanish powder from his cork-stoppered cow's
+horn, the quantity settled by eye-measurement in the palm of his hand, a
+wisp of palmetto leaf well rammed home, and a similar process gone
+through with the shot from a leather pouch, he may be trusted to give a
+good account of darting bunny or rattle-winged red-leg. Poor fellow! the
+respect and love he bears for his old favourite receive a rude shock
+when the power of modern combinations of wood-powder, choke-bore, and
+Purdey barrels have been successfully and successively demonstrated. But
+it is only after repeated proofs that his lifelong faith in the unique
+powers of that old _escopeta_ begins to shake.
+
+Then it is a study to watch that bronzed and swarthy face, after a long
+and clean right-and-left, and deep is the concentrated expressiveness of
+the single untranslatable word he utters. The first opportunity is taken
+to have a quiet examination of the English gun and cartridges, and with
+what respect he handles these latest developments of power and
+precision! One cannot help fearing that upon his next miss some particle
+of mistrust may, with a sportsman's facility of excuse, find the fault
+in his old and trusted friend: or that his ever-ready explanation, "_las
+polvoras estaban frias_," _i.e._, the powder was _cold_! will be
+associated with treasonable doubts of his old Brown Bess. We hope not.
+Good, honest fellow, may he ever remain content and satisfied with the
+old gun, for it affords almost the only solace of his lonely life!
+
+In this rough herdsman there beats the kindliest heart: there exist the
+best feelings of hospitality as he offers you, a brother sportsman, the
+shelter of his hut and a share of his humble fare, offered with the
+simple unaffected ease of an equal, and the natural grace characteristic
+of his class throughout the south of Spain.
+
+Besides these humble and harmless inhabitants, the Spanish sierras have
+also ever afforded a refuge for the brigand and outlaw, and many deeds
+of murder and violence are associated with these wild regions. Until the
+year 1889 the mountain land was dominated by two famous villains known
+as Vizco el Borje and Melgarez, his lieutenant, who commanded a band of
+desperadoes, the scourge and dread of the whole southern sierra, from
+Gibraltar to Almeria. Vizco el Borje held human life cheap: he stuck at
+no murder, though he sought not bloodshed, for his tactics were to take
+alive and hold to ransom. All sorts of tales are told of the courage and
+generosity of this Spanish Robin Hood. Vizco el Borje robbed only from
+the rich, and was profuse in the distribution of money and plunder among
+the peasantry. But whatever redeeming features may have existed in this
+robber chief, Melgarez, his lieutenant, is a very fiend of malice and
+cruelty, revelling in bloodshed and revolting butcheries.[4]
+
+To those unacquainted with Spain, "la tierra de vice versa," as they
+themselves call it, it must appear a mystery how this robber-band could
+remain at large, practical masters of great areas, in defiance of law
+and order, and of the civil and military power of Spain. But there is
+less difficulty for those who can see to read between the lines, in a
+land where, according to one of their own authors, every one has his
+price, that protection is afforded to the outlaws by those in place and
+power, on condition that they and their properties remain unmolested.[5]
+
+In another chapter we will relate a couple of episodes which have
+occurred within our personal knowledge, and which will serve to
+illustrate the robbers' methods of procedure, and the condition of
+personal security among the sierras of Southern Spain.
+
+[Illustration: A WATER-CARRIER.]
+
+[Illustration: Plate IV.
+
+DAUGHTERS OF ANDALUCIA.
+
+Page 19.]
+
+
+A NIGHT AT A POSADA.
+
+The wayfarer has been travelling all day across the scrub-clad wastes,
+fragrant with rosemary and wild thyme, without perhaps seeing a human
+being beyond a stray shepherd or a band of nomad gypsies encamped amidst
+the green palmettos. Towards night he reaches some small village where
+he seeks the rude _posada_. He sees his horse provided with a good feed
+of barley and as much broken straw as he can eat. He is himself regaled
+with one dish--probably the _olla_, or a _guiso_ (stew) of kid, either
+of them, as a rule, of a rich red-brick hue from the colour of the red
+pepper, or capsicum in the _chorizo_ or sausage, which is an important
+(and potent) component of most Spanish dishes. The steaming _olla_ will
+presently be set on a low table before the large wood-fire, and, with
+the best of crisp white bread and wine, the traveller enjoys his meal in
+company with any other guest that may have arrived at the time--be he
+muleteer or hidalgo. What a fund of information may be picked up during
+that promiscuous supper--there will be the housewife, the barber and the
+Padre of the village, perhaps a goatherd come down from the mountains, a
+muleteer, and a charcoal-burner or two, each ready to tell his own tale,
+or enter into friendly discussion with the _Ingles_. Then, as you light
+your _breva_, a note or two struck on the guitar fall on ears
+predisposed to be pleased.
+
+How well one knows those first few opening notes! No occasion to ask
+that it may go on: it will all come in time, and one knows there is a
+merry evening in prospect. One by one the villagers drop in, and an
+ever-widening circle is formed around the open hearth; rows of children
+collect, even the dogs draw around to look on. The player and the
+company gradually warm up till couplet after couplet of pathetic
+"_malaguenas_" follow in quick succession. These songs are generally
+topical, and almost always extempore: and as most Spaniards can--or
+rather are anxious to--one enjoys many verses that are very prettily as
+well as wittily conceived.
+
+[Illustration: DANCERS WITH CASTANETS.]
+
+But the girls must dance, and find no difficulty in getting partners to
+join them. The _malaguenas_ cease, and one or perhaps two couples stand
+up, and a pretty sight they afford! Seldom does one see girl-faces so
+full of fun and so supremely happy, as they adjust the castanets, and
+one damsel steps aside to whisper something sly to a sister or friend.
+And now the dance commences: observe there is no slurring or attempt to
+save themselves in any movement. Each step and figure is carefully
+executed, but with easy spontaneous grace and precision, both by the
+girl and her partner.
+
+Though two or more pairs may be dancing at once, each is quite
+independent of the others, and only dance to themselves: nor do the
+partners ever touch each other.[6] The steps are difficult and somewhat
+intricate, and there is plenty of scope for individual skill, though
+grace of movement and supple pliancy of limb and body are almost
+universal and are strong points in dancing both the fandango and minuet.
+Presently the climax of the dance approaches. The notes of the guitar
+grow faster and faster: the man--a stalwart shepherd lad--leaps and
+bounds around his pirouetting partner, and the steps, though still well
+ordered and in time, grow so fast one can hardly follow their movements.
+
+[Illustration: THE VILLAGE POSADA.]
+
+Now others rise and take the places of the first dancers, and so the
+evening passes: perhaps a few glasses of _aguardiente_ are handed
+round--certainly much tobacco is smoked--the older folks keep time to
+the music with hand-clapping, and all is good nature and merriment.
+
+What is it that makes the recollection of such evenings so pleasant? Is
+it merely the fascinating simplicity of the music and freedom of the
+dance; is it the spectacle of those weird, picturesque groups,
+bronze-visaged men and dark-eyed maidens, all lit up by the blaze of the
+great wood-fire on the hearth and low-burning oil-lamp suspended from
+the rafters? Perhaps it is only the remembrance of many happy evenings
+spent among these same people since our boyhood. This we can truly say,
+that when at last you turn in to sleep you feel happy and secure among a
+peasantry with whom politeness and sympathy are the only passports
+required to secure to you both friendship and protection if required.
+Nor is there a pleasanter means of forming some acquaintance with
+Spanish country life and customs than a few evenings spent thus at
+farm-house or village-inn in any retired district of laughter-loving
+Andalucia.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+A BOAR-HUNT IN THE SIERRA.
+
+
+Late one March evening we encamped on the spurs of a great Andalucian
+sierra. Away in the west, beyond the rolling prairie across which we had
+been riding all day, the sun was slowly sinking from view, and to the
+eastward the massive pile of San Christoval reflected his gorgeous hues
+in a soft rosy blush, which mantled its snow-streaked summit. Below in
+the valley we could discern the little white hermitage of La Aina, once
+the prison of a British subject, a Mr. Bonnell, who, captured in 1870[7]
+near Gibraltar, was carried thither by _sequestradores_, and concealed
+in this remote spot till the stipulated ransom had been lodged by the
+Governor of Gibraltar in the consulate at Cadiz: an incident which led
+to unpleasant correspondence between the British and Spanish
+Governments, and which was luckily closed by the tragic deaths of all
+the offenders.
+
+These miscreants had also formed a plan for an attack upon a private
+house at Utrera; but their intentions having become known (through
+treachery) to the Civil Guards, the latter surrounded the house, and
+drove the robbers into the _patio_, where a simultaneous volley
+terminated the careers of the whole crew. For advancing the ransom,
+L6,000 (which, after various adventures, involving more bloodshed, fell
+finally into the hands of a fresh robber-gang), the then Governor of
+Gibraltar was freely "hauled over the coals" in the House of Commons at
+the time.
+
+Wild tales of similar bearing beguiled the dark hours in the gloom of
+the forest where our big fire burned cheerily. Despite a fine, warm,
+winter climate, the Andalucian atmosphere is chilly enough after
+sundown, and we were glad to draw up close around the blazing logs,
+where a savoury _olla_ was cooking: and afterwards, while enjoying our
+cigarettes and that delicious "natural" wine of Spain which the British
+public, like a spoilt child, first cries for and then abuses.
+
+Towards nine o'clock the moon rose, and we continued our journey along
+the dark defiles of the sierra, pushing a way through evergreen thicket,
+or silent forest, where the startling cries of the eagle-owl outraged
+the stillness of night. As far as one could see by the dim moonlight,
+our course alternated for a long distance between a boulder-strewn
+ravine and a glacis of smooth sloping rock, steep as a roof, and more
+suited to the nocturnal gambols of cats than for horsemen. But the
+Andalucian _jaca_ is hardly less sure of foot, and in due course we
+emerged into a more level valley, where, after riding some miles beneath
+huge cork-oaks and ilex, we heard at length the distant challenge of our
+friend Gaspar's big mastiff, and soon the long ride was over, and we
+entered the portals of the _rancho_ which for the succeeding week was to
+be our home.
+
+Here we were confronted by a nuisance in the non-arrival of the
+commissariat. The pack-mules, despatched two days in advance, had not
+turned up. It transpired that the men, loitering away the daylight, as
+is the custom in Andalucia (and elsewhere), had lost the way in the
+darkness, almost immediately after leaving the last vestiges of a track,
+and had bivouaced among the scrub awaiting the break of day. Our
+resources for the night were thus limited to the scanty contents of the
+_alforjas_ (saddle-bags). We had, however, each provided ourselves with
+a big sackful of chaff at the last outpost of the corn-lands--chaff, or
+rather broken straw, being the staple food of the Spanish horse; and
+these now formed our beds, though their softness decreased nightly by
+reason of the constant inroads on their substance made by our
+Rosinantes. Otherwise the naked stone-paved room was absolutely innocent
+of either furniture or food; yet we were happy enough, as, rolled in our
+_mantas_, we lay down to sleep on those long pokes.
+
+[Illustration: "FURNITURE."]
+
+Early in the morning the mountaineers began to assemble in the courtyard
+of the rancho. Light of build as a rule, sinewy, and bronzed to a copper
+hue, looking as if their very blood was parched and dried up by tobacco
+and the fierce southern sun, and with _narajas_ stuck in their scarlet
+waistbands, these wild men might each have served as a melodramatic
+desperado. Three brothers of our host had ridden up from a distant farm;
+there was old Christoval, the ready-witted squatter on the adjoining
+rancho, a cheery old fellow, carrying fun and laughter wherever he went;
+last came the Padre from the nearest hill-village (Paterna), whose
+sporting instinct had made light work of the long and early ride across
+the sierra to join our _batida_. Alonzo, the herdsman, who added to his
+pastoral knowledge an intimate acquaintance with the wild beasts of his
+native mountains, was placed in command of the beaters, a motley,
+picturesque group with their leathern accoutrements and scarlet _fajas_.
+Of dogs, we had four _podencos_, tall, stiff-built, wiry-haired
+"terrier-greyhounds," fleet of foot, trained to find and harass the
+boar, to force him to break covert, but yet so wary at feint and retreat
+as to avoid the sweep of his tusks. Then there was huge "_Moro_," Don
+Gaspar's half-mastiff, half-bloodhound, whose staunchness was tested of
+old, and others of lesser note.
+
+[Illustration: OUR QUARTERS IN THE SIERRA.]
+
+Around our quarters were cultivated clearings of a few acres, fenced
+with the usual aloe and cactus: otherwise the landscape was one panorama
+of forest and evergreen brushwood, extending far up the mountain-sides,
+and towards the barren stony summits. These sierras of Jerez are of no
+great height relatively--perhaps 3,000 to 4,000 feet--and many of them
+bear unmistakable evidence of their long struggles with glacial ice in
+bygone ages--each tall slope consisting of a regular series of vertical
+bastions, or buttresses, alternating with deep glens in singular
+uniformity. Their conformation recalled the distant valleys of
+Spitsbergen, where we have seen the power of ice in actual operation,
+and carving out those grim Arctic hills after a precisely similar
+pattern. Here, however, dense jungle had for ages replaced the snow, and
+the wild boar now occupied strongholds where, _possibly_, the reindeer
+had once ranged in search of scanty lichen. For the season (March) the
+greenness of all foliage was remarkable; the oaks alone remained naked,
+and even from their leafless boughs hung luxuriant festoons of ivy and
+parasitic plants.
+
+The upper end of our valley was shut in by the towering, transverse mass
+of the Sierra de las Cabras, which terminates hard by, in a fine abrupt
+gorge or chasm called the Boca de la Foz. It was to the deep-jungled
+corries which furrow the sides of this chasm that Alonzo had that
+morning traced to their _camas_ some six or eight pig, including a
+couple of boar of the largest size, and this was to be the scene of our
+first day's operations.
+
+A pitiable episode occurred while we were surveying our surroundings,
+and preparing for a start. From close behind, suddenly resounded a peal
+of strange inhuman laughter, followed by incoherent words; and through
+the iron bars of a narrow window we discerned the emaciated figure of a
+man, wild and unkempt of aspect, and whose eagle-like claws grasped the
+barriers of his cell--a poor lunatic. No connected replies could we
+get--nothing but vacuous laughter and gibbering chatter: now he was at
+the theatre and quoted magic jargon; now supplicating the mercy of a
+judge; then singing a stanza of some old song, to break off as suddenly
+into a fierce denunciation of one of _us_ as the cause of all his
+troubles. Poor wretch! He had once been a successful lawyer and
+advocate, but having developed signs of madness, which increased with
+years, the once popular Carlos B---- was now reduced to the wretched
+durance of this iron-girt cell; his only share and view of God's earth
+just so much of sombre everlasting sierra as the narrow opening
+permitted. We were told it was hopeless to make any effort to ameliorate
+his lot--his case was too desperate. What hidden wrongs and outrage
+exist in a land where no judicial intervention is permitted between the
+"rights" of families and their insane relations (or those whom they may
+consider such), is only too much open to suspicion.
+
+The day was still young when we mounted and set out for the point where
+Alonzo's report had led us to hope for success. The first covert tried
+was a strong jungle flanking the main gorge; but this, and a second
+_batida_, proved blank, only a few foxes appearing, and a wild cat was
+shot. Two roe-deer were reported to have broken back, and several
+mongoose, or ichneumon, were also observed during these drives, but were
+always permitted to pass. The Spanish ichneumon (_Herpestes
+widdringtoni_), being peculiar to the Peninsula, deserves a passing
+remark; it is a strange, grizzly-grey beast, shaggy as a badger, but
+more slim in build, with the brightest of bright black eyes, and a very
+long bushy tail. Owing to his habit of eating snakes and other reptiles
+(in preference, it would seem, to rabbits, &c.), the ichneumon stinks
+beyond other beasts of prey. A large black ichneumon happened to be the
+first game that fell to the writer's rifle in Spain, and was carefully
+stowed in the mule-panniers--never to be seen again; for no sooner were
+our backs turned, than the men discreetly pitched out the malodorous
+trophy.
+
+As we approached our third beat--the main _manchas_, or thickets of the
+Boca de la Foz, the "rootings" and recent sign of pig became frequent,
+and we advanced to our allotted positions in silence, leaving the horses
+picketed far in the rear.
+
+The line of guns occupied the ridge of a natural amphitheatre, which
+dipped sharply away beneath us, the centre choked with strong thorny
+jungle. On the left towered a range of limestone crags, the right flank
+being hemmed in by huge uptilted rocks, like ruined towers, and white as
+marble. One of us occupied the centre, the other guarded a pass among
+these pinnacle rocks on the right. While waiting at our posts we could
+descry the beaters, mere dots, winding along the glen, 1,500 feet below.
+The mountain scenery was superb; but no sound broke the stillness save
+the distant tinkle of a goat-bell; nor was there a sign of life except
+that feathered recluse, the blue rock-thrush, (in Spanish
+"_solitario_,") and far overhead floated great tawny vultures. Ten
+minutes of profound silence, and then the distant shouts and cries of
+the beaters in the depths beneath told us the fray had begun.
+
+The heart of the jungle--all lentisk, or mimosa and thorn, interlaced
+with briar--being impenetrable, the efforts of our men were confined to
+directing the dogs, and by incessant noise to drive the game upwards.
+First a tall grey fox stole stealthily past, looked me full in the face
+and went on without increasing his speed; then a pair of red-legs,
+unconscious of a foe, sped by like 100-yard "sprinters"--a marvellous
+speed of foot have these birds on the roughest ground, and well are
+Spanish by-ways named _caminos de perdices_! Then the crash of
+hound-music proclaimed that the nobler quarry was at home. This boar
+proved to be one of those grizzly monsters of which we were specially in
+search; his lair a chaotic jumble of boulders islanded amid deepest
+thicket. Here he held his ground, declining to recognize in his noisy
+aggressors a superior force; and, though "Moro" and the boar-hounds
+speedily reinforced the skirmishers of the pack, the old tusker showed
+no sign of abandoning his stronghold. For minutes, that seemed like
+hours, the conflict raged stationary; the sonorous baying of the
+boar-hounds, the "yapping" of the smaller dogs, and shouts of the
+mountaineers, blended with the howl of an incautious _podenco_ as he
+received his death-rip--all these formed a chorus of sounds which
+carried sufficient excitement to the sentinel guns above. Such and
+kindred moments are worth months of ordinary life.
+
+The actual scene of war lay some half-mile below, hence no immediate
+issue was probable or expected; then came a crashing of the brushwood on
+my front, and a three-parts-grown boar dashed straight for the narrow
+pass where the writer barred the way. The suddenness of the encounter
+was disconcerting, and the first shot was a miss, the bullet, all but
+grazing his back and splashing on the grey rock beyond, and time barely
+remained to jump aside to avoid collision. The left barrel told with
+better effect: a stumble as he received it, followed by a frantic grunt
+as an ounce of lead penetrated his vitals, and the beast plunged
+headlong among the brushwood, his life-blood dyeing the weather-blanched
+rocks and dark green palmettos. There for a moment he lay, kicking and
+groaning; but ere the cold steel could administer a quietus, he regained
+his legs and dashed straight back. Whether that charge was prompted by
+revenge, or was merely an effort to regain the thickets he had just
+left, matters not; for a third bullet, at two yards' distance, laid him
+lifeless.
+
+[Illustration: A STRAIGHT CHARGE.]
+
+[Illustration: Plate V.
+
+THAT OLD TUSKER.
+
+Page 31.]
+
+During this interlude, though it had only occupied a few moments, the
+main combat below was approaching its climax. The old boar had at length
+left his hold, and after sundry sullen stands and promiscuous skirmishes
+with the hounds, he took to flight. Showing first on the centre, he was
+covered for some seconds by a .450 express; but not breaking covert,
+no shot could be fired, and when he at last appeared in view, he was
+trotting up the stony slopes on the extreme left. Here a rifle-shot at
+long range broke a fore-leg below the shoulder. This was the turning
+point: the wounded boar, no longer able to face the hill, wheeled and
+retreated to the thickets below, scattering the dogs and passing through
+the beaters at marvellous speed, considering his disabled condition. And
+now commenced the hue and cry and the real hard work for those who meant
+to see the end and earn the spoils of war. Soon "Moro's" deep voice told
+he had the tusker at bay, down in the defile, far below. What followed
+in that hurly-burly--that mad scramble through brake and thicket, down
+crag and scree--is impossible to tell. Each man only knows what he did
+himself--or did not do. We can answer for three; one of these seated
+himself on a rock and lit a cigarette; the others, ten minutes later,
+arrived on the final scene--one minus his nether garments and sundry
+patches of skin, but in time to take part in the death of as grand a
+boar as ever roamed the Spanish sierras.
+
+First to arrive was Gaspar himself, familiar with every by-way and
+goat-track on the hills, and nervous for the safety of his hound; but
+only a few seconds before the denuded _Ingles_. In a pool of the
+rock-strewn brook, the beast stood at bay, "Moro's" teeth clenched in
+one ear and two _podencos_ attacking in flank and rear. Gaspar elected
+to finish the business with the knife, fixed bayonet-wise, but the horn
+haft slipped from the muzzle, and a moment later two simultaneous
+bullets had closed the affair.
+
+One by one the scattered guns turned up: some, who had taken a
+circuitous course, arriving before others whose ardour had led them to
+follow direct--so dense was the brushwood and rugged the sierra. A
+picturesque group stood assembled around the blood-dyed pool with its
+wild environment and bold mountain background; but rejoicings were
+tempered by the loss of two of our _podencos_, one having been killed
+outright, the other found in a hopelessly wounded condition at the
+point of the first conflict.
+
+The boar proved a magnificent brute, one of the true grey-brindled
+type--_de los Castellanos_, weighing over 300 lbs. The wild-boars of the
+sierras run larger than those of the plains, some being _said_ to reach
+400 lbs. Beneath the outer grizzly bristles lies a reddish woolly fur.
+
+We were soon mounted and steering for another _mancha_, where, late in
+the afternoon, two sows and a small boar were found and driven forward
+through the line of guns. One fell to a fine shot from our host's
+brother, the others escaping scathless. Night was already upon us ere
+the party re-assembled, and we rode off amidst the shadows of the
+forest-glades, to fight the battles of the day again and again round the
+cheery blaze in the courtyard of our mountain-home.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration: Plate VI.
+
+BUSTARDS ON THE BARRENS--WINTER. "A First Shade of Suspicion."
+
+Page 33.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+THE GREAT BUSTARD.
+
+
+A characteristic and withal a truly noble and ornamental object is the
+Great Bustard, on those vast stretches of silent corn-lands which form
+his home. Among the things of sport are few more attractive scenes than
+a band of bustards at rest. Bring your field-glass to bear on that
+gathering which you see yonder, basking in the sunshine, in full
+enjoyment of their siesta. There are four-or five-and-twenty of them,
+and how immense they look against the background of sprouting corn that
+covers the landscape: well may a stranger mistake them for deer or
+goats. Most of the birds are sitting turkey-fashion, their heads sunk
+among the feathers: others stand in drowsy yet half-suspicious
+attitudes, their broad backs resplendent with those mottled hues of true
+game-colour, their lavender necks and well-poised heads contrasting with
+the snowy whiteness of their lower plumage. The bustards are dotted in
+groups over an acre or two of the gently sloping ground, the highest
+part of which is occupied by a single big _barbudo_, a bearded veteran,
+the sentinel of the party. From his elevated position he estimates what
+degree of danger each living thing that moves on the open region around
+may threaten to his companions and himself. Mounted men cause him less
+concern than those on foot: a horseman slowly directing a circuitous
+course may even approach to within a couple of hundred yards of him
+before he takes alarm. It was the head and neck of this sentry that
+first appeared to our distant view, and disclosed the whereabouts of the
+game. He, too, has seen us, and is even now considering whether there is
+sufficient cause for putting his convoy in motion. If we disappear
+below the level of his range he will settle the point negatively;
+setting us down as only some of those agricultural nuisances which so
+often cause him alarm, but which his experience has shown to be
+generally harmless--for attempts on his life are few and far between.
+
+Another charming spectacle it is in the summer-time to watch a pack of
+bustards about sunset, all busy with their evening feed among the
+grasshoppers on a thistle-covered plain. They are working against time,
+for it will soon be too dark for them to catch such lively prey. With
+quick, darting step they run to and fro, picking up one grasshopper
+after another with unerring aim, and so intent on their feed that the
+best chance of the day is then offered to their pursuer, when greed, for
+the moment, supplants caution, and vigilance is relaxed. But even now a
+man on foot stands no chance of coming near them; his approach is
+observed from afar, all heads are up above the thistles, all eyes intent
+on the intruder: a moment or two of doubt, two quick steps and a spring,
+and the strong wings of every bird in the band flap in slowly-rising
+motion. The tardiness and apparent difficulty in rising from the ground
+which these birds exhibit is well expressed in their Spanish name
+_Avetarda_,[8] and is recognized in their scientific cognomen of _Otis
+tarda_. Once on the wing, the whole pack is off, with wide swinging
+flight, to the highest ground in the neighbourhood.
+
+[Illustration: Plate VII.
+
+WATERING THE CATTLE--SUMMER TIME.
+
+Page 35.]
+
+During the greater part of the year the bustards are far too wary to be
+obtained by the farm-hands and shepherds who see them every day; and so
+accustomed are the peasants to the sight of these noble birds that
+little or no notice is taken of them. Their haunts and habits not being
+studied, their pursuit is regarded as impracticable. There is, however,
+one period of the year when the Great Bustard falls an easy prey to the
+clumsiest of gunners. During the long Andalucian summer a torrid sun has
+drunk up every brook and stream that crosses the cultivated lands:
+the chinky, cracked mud, which in winter formed the bed of shallow lakes
+and lagoons, now yields no drop of moisture for bird or beast. The
+larger rivers still carry their waters from sierra to sea, but a more
+adaptive genius than that of the Spanish people is required to utilize
+these for purposes of irrigation. All water required for the cattle is
+drawn up from wells: the old-world lever with its bucket at one end and
+counterpoise at the other, has to provide for the needs of all. These
+wells are distributed all over the plains. As the herdsmen put the
+primitive contrivance into operation and swing up bucket after bucketful
+of cool water, the cattle crowd around, impatient to receive it as it
+rushes along the stone troughing. The thirsty animals drink their fill,
+splashing and wasting as much as they consume, so that a puddle is
+always formed about these _bebideros_. The moisture only extends a few
+yards, gradually diminishing till the trickling streamlet is lost in the
+famishing soil.
+
+These moist places are a fatal trap to the bustard. Before dawn one of
+the farm-people will conceal himself so as to command at short range all
+points of the miniature swamp. A slight hollow is dug for the purpose,
+having clods arranged around, between which the gun can be levelled with
+murderous accuracy. As day begins to dawn, the bustard will take a
+flight in the direction of the well, alighting at a point some few
+hundred yards distant. They satisfy themselves that no enemy is about,
+and then, with cautious, stately step, make for their morning draught.
+One big bird steps on ahead of the rest: as he cautiously draws near, he
+stops now and again to assure himself that all is right, and that his
+companions are coming too--these are not in a compact body, but
+following at intervals of a few yards. The leader has reached the spot
+where he drank yesterday; now he finds he must go a little nearer to the
+well, as the streamlet has been diverted; another bird follows close;
+both lower their heads to drink; the gunner has them in line--at twenty
+paces there is no escape: the trigger is pressed, and two magnificent
+bustards are done to death. Should the man be provided with a second
+barrel (which is not usual), a third victim may be added to his
+morning's spoils.
+
+Large numbers of bustards are destroyed thus every summer. It is deadly
+work, and certain. Were the haunts of the birds more studied, bustards
+might be annihilated on these treacherous lines.
+
+Another primitive mode of capturing the Great Bustard is also practised
+in winter. The increased value of game during the colder months induces
+the bird-catchers, who supply the markets with myriads of ground-larks,
+linnets and buntings, occasionally to direct their skill towards the
+capture of the _avetardas_. They employ the same means as for the taking
+of the small fry--the _cencerro_, or cattle-bell, and dark lantern. As
+most cattle carry the _cencerro_ around their necks, the sound of the
+bells at close quarters by night causes no alarm to the ground birds.
+The birdcatcher, with his bright candle gleaming before its reflector
+and the cattle-bell jingling at his wrist, prowls nightly over the
+stubbles and wastes in search of roosting birds. Any number of
+bewildered victims can thus be gathered, for larks and such-like birds
+fall into a helpless state of panic when once focussed in the bright
+rays of the lantern.
+
+When the bustard is the object of pursuit, two men are required, one of
+whom carries a gun. The pack of bustard will be carefully watched during
+the afternoon, and not lost sight of when night comes until their
+sleeping-quarters are ascertained. When quite dark, the tinkling of the
+_cencerro_ will be heard, and a ray of light will surround the devoted
+bustards, charming or frightening them--whichever it may be--into still
+life. As the familiar sound of the cattle-bell becomes louder and
+nearer, the ray of light brighter and brighter, and the surrounding
+darkness more intense, the bustards are too charmed, or too dazed, to
+fly. Then comes the report, and a charge of heavy shot works havoc among
+them. As bands of bustards are numerous, this poaching plan might be
+carried out night after night: but, luckily, the bustards will not stand
+the same experience twice. On a second attempt being made, they are off
+as soon as the light is seen approaching. Hence the use of the
+_cencerro_ is precarious, at least as regards the bustards.
+
+Except for the two clumsy artifices above described, the bustards are
+left practically unmolested; their wildness and the open nature of their
+haunts defy all the strategy of native fowlers. Their eggs are deposited
+on the ground when it is covered with the green April corn: incubation
+and the rearing of the young takes place amid the security of vast
+silent stretches of waving corn. The young bustards grow with the wheat,
+and ere it is cut are able to take care of themselves. It is just after
+harvest that the game is most numerous and conspicuous. The stubbles are
+then bare, and even the fallows which during spring bear heavy swathes
+of weeds, have now lost all their covert. The summer sun has pulverized
+and consumed all vegetation, and, but for a few chance patches of
+thistles, charlock or _aramagos_, there is nothing that can screen the
+birds from view.
+
+A more legitimate method of outwitting the Great Bustard is practised at
+this--the summer--period. After harvest, when the country is being
+cleared of crops, or when all are cut and in sheaf, the bustards become
+accustomed daily to see the bullock-carts (_carros_) passing with
+creaking wheel, on all sides, carrying off the sheaves from the stubbles
+to the _era_, or levelled ground where the grain is trodden out,
+Spanish-fashion, by teams of mares. The loan of a _carro_, with its pair
+of bullocks and a man to guide them, having been obtained from one of
+the corn-farms, the cart is rigged up with _esteras_--that is, an
+esparto matting is stretched round the poles which, fixed on the sides,
+serve to hold the load of sheaves in position. A few sacks of straw
+thrown upon the floor of the cart serve to save one, in some small
+degree, from the merciless jolting of this primitive conveyance on rough
+ground. One, two, or even three guns can find room in the _carro_, the
+driver lying forward, near enough to direct the bullocks and urge them
+on by means of a goad, which he works through a hole in the _esteras_.
+
+At a distance this moving battery looks a good deal like a load of
+straw. The search for bustard now begins, and well do we remember the
+terrible suffocating heat we have endured, shut up in this thing for
+hours in the blazing days of July and August. Bustards being found, the
+bullocks are cleverly directed, gradually circling inwards, the goad
+during the final moments freely applied. When the cart is stopped,
+instantly the birds rise. Previous to finding game, each man has made
+for himself a hole in the _estera_, through which he has been practising
+the handling of his gun. So far as practice goes, his arrangements
+appear perfect enough; but somehow, when the cart stops, the birds rise,
+and the moment for action has arrived, the game seems always to fly in a
+direction you cannot command, or where the narrow slit will not allow
+you to cover them. Hence we have adopted the plan of sliding off behind
+just as the cart was pulling up, thus firing the two barrels with much
+greater freedom. We have enjoyed excellent sport by this means, and
+succeeded in bringing many bustards to bag during the day. And after a
+long summer-day shut up in this rude contrivance, creaking and jolting
+across stubble and fallow, a deep cool draught of _gazpacho_ at the farm
+is indeed delicious to parched throats and tongues.
+
+Another system by which the Great Bustard can be brought to bag is by
+driving, and right royal sport it affords at certain seasons. The most
+favourable period is the early spring--especially the month of March.
+The male birds are then in their most perfect plumage and condition,
+with the gorgeous chestnut ruff fully developed, and in the early
+mornings they present an imposing spectacle, as with lowered neck,
+trailing wings, and expanded tail, they strut round and round in stately
+circles--"_echando la rueda_"--before an admiring harem, somewhat after
+the fashion of the blackcock; though whether the bustard is polygamous
+is a question we discuss in another chapter. At this season (March) the
+corn is sufficiently grown to afford covert for the gunners, but not to
+conceal these great birds when feeding, _i.e._, about girth-deep.
+
+[Illustration: GREAT BUSTARD--"ECHANDO LA RUEDA."]
+
+The system of the _ojeo_ or bustard-drive is as follows:--The scene of
+operations must be reached as soon after daybreak as possible, which
+necessitates an early start and a long matutinal ride; for bustards feed
+morning and evening, and during the midday hours lie down for a siesta
+among the corn or rough herbage, when it is mere chance work finding
+them on so vast an area. Hence an early start is necessary. When likely
+corn-lands are reached, _one_ man advances to reconnoitre: having
+descried a band of bustards and taken a comprehensive view of the
+surrounding country, he must at once decide on his line of action. The
+bustards are perhaps a mile away: the leader must therefore have a "good
+eye for a country"--much, in fact, depends on his rapid intuition of the
+lie of the land and local circumstances, his knowledge of the habits and
+flights of the birds, and his ability to utilize the _smallest_ natural
+advantages of ground or cover--_small_ indeed these are sure to be,
+invisible to untrained eye. The first great object is to bring the guns,
+unseen, as near the game as possible. If any miscalculation occurs, and
+the advancing sportsmen expose themselves for a moment, then, very
+literally, "the game is up" and the pack escapes unharmed. When the
+birds are found settled on a hillside, it is sometimes not difficult to
+place the guns on the reverse slope, and so near the summit that the
+sportsman, stretched full length on the earth, has the birds within shot
+almost before their danger is exposed. But it must be noted that the
+sight of the bustard is extraordinarily keen, and the slightest unusual
+object on the monotonous plain is sure to be detected. As a rule, if the
+gunner can see the bustards, they too will have seen him and will swerve
+from their course before approaching within range.
+
+But, generally speaking (except during the spring-shooting), there is
+hardly a vestige of anything like covert for the gunner: sometimes by
+lucky chance, a dry watercourse may be available, or a solitary clump of
+palmettos--even a few dead thistles may prove invaluable. These two
+circumstances explain the numerous disappointments that attend
+bustard-driving on the corn-plains.
+
+Time being allowed to place the guns, two or three men start to ride
+round the bustards at considerable distance, gradually approaching them
+from a direction which will incline their flight towards the hidden
+guns. Through long practice these men become very expert; more than once
+we have seen a pack of the most stiff-necked undrivable bustards turned
+in mid-flight by a judicious gallop--executed at the very nick of
+time--and directed right towards the guns; and we have also known birds
+so delicately treated that instead of rising before the slowly-advancing
+horsemen, they have quietly walked away and startled the sportsman by
+striding over a ridge within a few yards of his prostrate form.
+
+[Illustration: Plate VIII.
+
+BUSTARD-DRIVING--THE PACK "_COME WELL IN!_"
+
+Page 40.]
+
+In speaking of hills, ridges, &c., the words are used in a relative
+sense. Broken ground is the exception in any district much affected by
+bustard; and therefore the most must be made of the slight undulations
+which these rolling plains afford. When a party of five or six guns are
+well placed, it is unusual for the pack to get away without offering a
+shot to one or more of the sportsmen. Strange to say, they not
+infrequently escape. We know not what the cause may be--whether the
+apparently slow flight--really very fast--or the huge bulk of the birds
+deceives, or otherwise--yet some of the best shots at ordinary driven
+game are often perplexed at their bad records against the _avetardas_.
+Long shots, it is true, are the rule: longer far than one dreams of
+taking at home--and such ranges require extreme forward allowance: yet
+many birds at close quarters are let off.
+
+A memorable sight is a huge _barbon_, or male bustard, when he suddenly
+finds himself within range of a pair of choke-bore barrels--so near that
+one can see his eye! How he ploughs through the air with redoubled
+efforts of those enormous wings, and hopes by putting on the pace to
+escape from danger.
+
+It is when only _one_ man and his driver are after bustard that the
+cream of this sport is enjoyed. The work then resembles deer-stalking,
+for the sportsman must necessarily creep up _very close_ to his game in
+order to have any fair chance of a shot. Unless he has wormed his way to
+within 150 yards before the birds are raised, the odds are long against
+success. Gratifying indeed is the triumph when, after many efforts, and
+as many disappointments, one at length outmatches them, and secures a
+heavy bag by a single right-and-left.
+
+By way of illustration, we give, in the next chapter, descriptions of
+bustard-shooting, (1) driving with a party in the ordinary way, and (2)
+Stalking and driving to a single gun.
+
+Such, roughly described, are the two chief recognized systems of
+shooting the Great Bustard: _i.e._, _driving_, which can be practised at
+any period of autumn, winter, or early spring, but which is most
+effective in March, when the growing crops afford sufficient "blind";
+and shooting from the cart, which is only available during, or just
+after, harvest.
+
+There remains, however, another method by which this game may be brought
+to bag--one which we may claim to have ourselves invented and brought to
+some degree of perfection--namely:
+
+
+BUSTARD-SHOOTING SINGLE-HANDED.
+
+At one period of the year (about May), just before the corn comes into
+ear, and when the male bustards are banded together, they are much more
+accessible, the corn being high all around them, and the guns more
+easily concealed. But the objections from a farmer's point of view are
+obvious, and we have rarely followed them under these conditions, though
+it is a favourite period with Spanish sportsmen.
+
+We have frequently been asked by the country people to try our hands at
+their ambuscades by the wells (above described), and often caused
+surprise by declining to kill bustards in this way. It was, in fact,
+because we did not enjoy any of the means in vogue with the natives,
+that we resolved to try what could be done single-handed; and by
+sticking to it and hard work, have since accounted for many a fine
+_barbon_, and enjoyed many an hour's exciting sport with others not
+brought to bag, and which probably still roam over the Andalucian
+_vegas_ to give fine sport another day.
+
+On foot nothing could be done single-handed, but by the aid and
+co-operation of a steady old pony, success was found to be possible. As
+soon as the country is cleared of corn (about July or August), bustard
+pass the mid-day hours sheltering from the sun in any patch of high
+thistles or palmetto that may grow on the bare lands or stubbles. We
+have also found them, during mid-summer, under olive-trees, but never in
+any cover or spot where they could not command all the space for many
+gunshots around. Having been disturbed in their siesta--generally about
+a couple of hundred yards before the horseman reaches them--the birds
+stand up, shake the dust from their feathers, and are all attention to
+see that the intruder has no evil designs upon them. Ride directly
+towards them and they are off at once; but if approach be made
+cautiously and circuitously, the bustards, though suspicious and uneasy,
+do not rise but walk slowly away, for they are reluctant to take wing
+at this hot time. It is needless to add that the intense heat is also a
+severe test of endurance to the bustard-shooter. By keeping one's own
+figure and the pony's head as much averted as possible--advancing
+sidelong, crab-fashion, so to speak, and gradually circling inwards, one
+may, with patience, at length attain a deadly range,--seldom near, but
+still near enough to use the heavy AAA mould-shot with fatal effect, for
+the bustard, despite his bulk, is not a very hard or close-feathered
+bird, and falls to a blow that the grey goose would laugh at. When the
+nearest point is reached--and one learns by experience to judge by the
+demeanour of the game when they will permit no nearer approach--the
+opportune moment must be seized; the first barrel put in smartly on the
+ground, and more deliberate aim taken with the second as they rise.
+
+The hotter the day, the nearer one can get. Much depends on the horse:
+if he does not stop _dead_ the chance is lost, as the bustards rise
+directly on detecting a change in the movements of horse and man. With
+practice my pony became very clever, and came to know as well as his
+rider what was going on, so that after a time, we could rely on getting
+three or four shots a day and seldom returned without one bustard,
+frequently two or three. During one year (his best) the writer bagged
+sixty-two bustards to his own gun.
+
+We make it a rule to accept no shot at any very risky distance, finding
+that, if not scared, the birds do not fly so far, and are more
+accessible on a second approach. Sometimes there occur lucky spots
+where, as one is slowly drawing round on them, the bustards walk over
+the crest of a ridge, and disappear. This is a chance not to be
+lost--slip from the saddle, run straight to the ridge, and surprise
+them, as they descend the reverse slope, with a couple of barrels ere
+they have time to realize the danger. Dips and hills, as before
+remarked, are not frequent on the haunts of bustards, but we have
+chanced on such localities more than once. Upon one occasion we bagged a
+brace of the largest _barbones_ we ever saw by such a piece of good
+luck.
+
+A blazing sun is a great assistance, making the birds lazy and
+disinclined to exert themselves. As an instance of this we remember
+being after bustard one day in September--an intensely hot day even for
+Spain, and with a fiery sun beating down on the quivering plains. Though
+well protected by a thick felt helmet and wearing the lightest of light
+summer clothes, the heat was almost more than one could endure. We had
+unsuccessfully ridden over some thousands of acres of stubble and
+waste--it was on the historic plains of Guadalete where Roderic and the
+Arabs fought--when at length we were gratified by observing three
+bustards walk out of a cluster of thistles. After twice circling round
+them, we saw that at eighty or ninety yards' distance, they would stand
+it no longer: so turning in the saddle, gave them both barrels, but
+without effect, as they sailed away about a mile and settled. On a
+second approach, as they rose at 200 yards, it looked as though they
+were impracticable, but doubting if there were other birds in that
+neighbourhood, we kept on, and followed them in this second flight,
+which this time was shorter. Again they rose wild--wilder than ever, at
+fully 800 yards. They came down upon a patch of the barley-stubbled
+plain where we were able to mark their position to a nicety, for they
+pitched close to a _sombrajo_, or sun-shade for cattle (a thatch of
+palmetto spread on aloe-poles). On approaching the place, and not seeing
+the bustards afoot, we concluded they were resting after their repeated
+flights; but having reached almost the exact spot, we could still see
+nothing of them. This was perplexing. We knew they could not have risen,
+for our eyes had never left the spot where they had settled. What could
+have become of them?... All at once we saw them, squatting flat within
+thirty yards of us, each bird pressed close down with his neck stretched
+along the ground. All trouble was now rewarded. It was not a chance to
+be risked by shooting from the saddle: and as we slid to the ground, gun
+cocked, and facing the birds, we felt it was the best double rise at big
+bustards that ever man had. As we touched the ground, they rose: one
+fell dead at forty yards, a second, wheeling back, showed too much of
+his white breast to be let off; the third flew far beyond view, and the
+only regret, for a moment, was that there were no treble-barrelled
+breech-loaders. Half an hour later we fell in with a band of young
+bustards, which allowed us to approach near enough to drop one; so that
+evening the old pony had a good load to carry home.
+
+[Illustration: GREAT BUSTARDS--AN APRIL DAWN.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+BIG DAYS WITH BUSTARD.
+
+
+I.--JEDILLA.
+
+The two following examples of fortunate days will serve to illustrate
+the system of bustard-shooting as practised on the corn-lands of
+Southern Spain, and convey some idea of the haunts and habits of this
+noble game-bird, in a region where they still remain abundant.
+
+The rendezvous was at the Cortijo de Jedilla, a farm lying some twelve
+miles away, and the hour fixed was nine o'clock on an April morning.
+This, along a road that resembled the remains of an earthquake,
+necessitated an early start. For near three hours we rattled and jolted
+along in the roomy brake, that lurched at times like a cross-channel
+steamer, to the merry-jingling bells of a four-in-hand mule-team.
+
+At the hour appointed our ponies and people stood around the
+broad-arched entrance of the cortijo, all under the direction of old
+Blas, the keen-eyed mountaineer, equally at home on rugged sierra, or
+bestriding bare-backed his restive colt, and intimately acquainted with
+every inch of the wide country around. Blas had left home long before
+daybreak on that lovely spring morning, and after covering the four
+leagues across the plains at a hand-gallop, had already--like swift
+Camilla--scoured all the cultivated lands around the cortijo, in search
+of the big birds while yet they were busy seeking their matutinal feed.
+He received us with the gratifying intelligence that he had marked _tres
+bandadas_--three packs of bustard. In a few minutes we were mounted, the
+guns slung in the _fundas_, and away.
+
+Blas led the file of horsemen towards the nearest band. We were a party
+of four, with a contingent of six mounted hands under Blas' directions
+in the ticklish work of driving. Presently the bustards are descried,
+their lavender heads and lighter necks visible, through the glasses,
+above the _biznagas_ (visnaya of Linnaeus) on a hillside some 1,000 yards
+away.
+
+Their position, on a hill of so gentle a slope as to command all the
+plain around, was most difficult to surround; however, as a forlorn
+hope, and rather with the object of moving them to more favourable
+ground, we rode slowly past them on the north, at about 300 yards, the
+birds perking their heads and taking the most lively interest in the
+string of horsemen. When the nature of the land afforded a cover from
+the birds' view, we rode round to the southern side, but always at too
+great a distance to promise anything like a fair chance of getting the
+birds over us.[9] Our four guns, however, now spread out along the
+slope, covering among them some quarter-mile of possible flight. The
+men, riding round to the northern side again, opened out in line, and
+slowly came in towards the common centre. At first the pack came
+straight for the guns; but the leader, flying higher than the rest,
+caught sight of a foe--of No. 1 gun lying full length on the
+soil--swerved, and took with him the whole pack, out of shot on the
+extreme right. The latter fact our inexperienced friend in that quarter
+did not comprehend, for he let drive a couple of quick and useless
+barrels. Worse than useless! for, as we watched the splendid birds
+streaming away into space across the valleys of spring corn, we knew
+that our chance at that _bandada_ was gone--at least for the day.
+
+The second band required a good deal of finding: although Blas was
+confident he had correctly localized them, we could descry no bustards
+anywhere in that neighbourhood. At length one of our scouts brought us
+good news; the birds had walked more than a mile from where Blas had
+seen them in the early morning. We now waited for him to reconnoitre,
+and he soon reported that they were basking in the sun amidst a sea of
+shooting barley--a fact we shortly verified with our field-glasses. Not
+only were they so favourably placed for a stalk that we would be able to
+"horseshoe" the four guns behind them at almost certain distance, but
+the drivers (by a long detour) would also get well in at the front of
+their position unseen. The two centre guns were placed in the valley at
+the foot of the green slope, while the two flanking guns were enabled,
+by the favouring ground, to creep well up the hillside--a disposition
+which would leave the birds wholly enclosed at their first flight. The
+central posts had also the advantage of a rank growth of weeds along the
+hollow, which effectually concealed them from view. It was a short
+affair. The writer (left flank) soon heard the whirr of heavy wings: the
+game passed between him and the opposite flanking gun, out of shot of
+either, but "entering" beautifully to the centre. Both guns rose to
+watch the tableau. Straight as a line passed forward the huge
+_barbones_--some five-and-twenty of them, the resplendent plumage of
+rich orange and contrasting black and white set off against the green
+background; their great swollen necks appeared almost disproportionately
+heavy, even for those broad pinions and (seemingly) leisurely flight.
+But bustards, like all heavy game, travel vastly quicker than appears to
+be the case, as the sequel proved.
+
+[Illustration: Plate IX.
+
+GREAT BUSTARDS AMONG THE SPRING CORN.
+
+Page 48.]
+
+Now they are on the very fringe of the darker green of the hollow; our
+centre guns have them at their mercy. Don't they see them? Yes; two
+figures rise from the rank weeds, and flashing barrels enfilade the
+flock. One, two, three, four reports ring out; but ... not a bird comes
+down, the frightened monsters spread asunder, winging a quicker flight
+in all directions. One huge _barbudo_ behind the rest wheels back and
+almost gives us a chance as he takes the hill in reverse; but he sees
+the danger and passes to the right, swerving in his course too near our
+_vis-a-vis_, and before we hear the report we can see the ponderous mass
+of 30lbs. of bustard collapse. He is struck well forward, in head and
+neck, and pitches heavily earthwards, splitting his broad chest as it
+rebounds from the unyielding soil. We had--and that by sheer chance--a
+single head to show for this carefully-planned drive.
+
+Our young friends in the valley were sad indeed, but over such things
+let us draw the veil. The drivers, too, had witnessed their failure. It
+may be safer rather to leave their feelings to the sympathetic reader to
+imagine than to describe. Old Blas declared they had "llenado el ojo de
+carne"--that the huge bulk of the birds had concealed from over-anxious
+eyes the rapidity of their flight. After lunch what had appeared a
+catastrophe became a jest.
+
+An unsuccessful manoeuvre followed, and we had to ride afar to seek
+fresh _bandadas_. After traversing leagues of corn-land--at this season
+as lonely as an African desert,--we descried a considerable pack, and
+again luck favoured us as to site. An _arroyo_, or stream, ran along the
+valley below--one of those small rapid currents that, in winter, tear
+deep and narrow gulleys, and in the summer become quite dry, save in a
+few of the deeper pools or favoured corners which resist the heat and
+afford nesting homes for the mallard and drinking resorts for the
+bustard. Now, there was water all along, and tall reeds and canes grew
+several feet in height. Could we place the guns along this ditch the
+drive was secure. The question was, Would the birds allow a mounted
+group to pass so near? We tried and succeeded. Witness's luck placed him
+in a cane-brake, whence he could watch every movement of the bustards at
+leisure. On rising, the pack bore straight to the gun on the left.
+Luckily (for us), this "point-gun," in his undue anxiety, showed too
+soon--before the birds had come well in. The pack swung in our
+direction, right along the line, giving a chance to both centre guns
+(only one of which was taken advantage of), and then bore straight for
+the writer, well overhead, and not over 60 feet high--an _embarras de
+richesse_.
+
+The first and second shots, with the 12-bore, stopped a pair of what
+appeared the biggest of the pack, coming in--right and left--and then,
+picking up a single 4-bore, there followed the further satisfaction of
+pulling down a third old male at very long range. These three superb
+birds weighed 93lbs.--a notable shot, probably without parallel in
+sporting annals.
+
+Before night we found twice more, and each of the _batidas_ added a bird
+to the bag, the result of the day's sport being seven noble _barbones_,
+or male bustard, now in the fullest glory of their splendid spring
+plumage.
+
+Thus ended a successful day, on which Fortune had favoured us, on
+several occasions, in finding the game in accessible situations. Such
+good luck does not always, nor even often, await the bustard-shooter;
+and even when it does, there still remains the real _crux_--the quick
+intuition of the requisite strategical movements and their successful
+execution.
+
+
+II.--SANTO DOMINGO. AN IDYL.
+
+The chimes of San Miguel were already ringing out the summons to
+even-song. Graceful figures in dark lace and mantillas hurried across
+the palm-shaded Plaza, as two Ingleses (_sus servidores de ustedes_)
+rode out of the city on an April afternoon.
+
+It was rather for a ride than with any special sporting object in view
+that we set out. Yet, as is always the case in Spain, the guns were
+slung behind the saddle, and we remembered that, only a few days before,
+one of us had encountered a band of thirteen bustards--a dozen of which
+should still be basking on the green corn-lands of Santo Domingo, within
+a league of the _octroi_ boundary.
+
+The binoculars, however, swept the swelling grounds without disclosing
+any occupants more important than a group of grey cranes and a pair of
+partridges indulging in vernal flirtations, careless of a kite which
+hovered hard by.
+
+[Illustration: THE BUSTARD-SHOOTER--TRIUMPH!]
+
+Beyond the corn-land lay undulated _manchones_, or fallows, clothed with
+a short growth of grass and thistles, and here on the summit of a
+flat-crowned knoll, a mile away, we descried a band of eight bustards.
+Hardly could a more unfavourable spot be selected. Their sentries
+commanded every visible approach, and we advanced in Indian file to
+reconnoitre, with the conviction that any operation must be in the
+nature of a forlorn hope. But a skill and rapid perception of the least
+advantage, worthy of a field-marshal, were at work, directed against the
+hapless eight. Riding circuitously around the game, we had approached as
+near as prudence allowed--some 300 yards, when an almost imperceptible
+depression served for a few moments to screen us from their view. Hardly
+had the last head sunk below the sky-line than one of the two guns
+rolled out of the saddle, passing the reins to his companion, who, in
+ten more yards, had reappeared to the already suspicious bustards. By
+the invaluable aid of a tiny furrow, worn by the winter's rains, but
+barely a foot in depth, No. 1 managed to worm a serpentine progression
+to the shoulder of the hill,--a point some 100 yards up the gentle
+slope, and barely twice that distance from the game,--while No. 2,
+slowly encircling the birds at 200 yards radius, gradually contracting
+and in full view, gained the reverse of the hill. Twice the big sentry
+had given the warning to "be ready"; as often the hunter widened his
+course till suspicion was allayed. Critical moments these, when success
+or failure depend upon a thread: upon instant diagnosis of what is
+passing in one's opponent's mind, divining, so to speak, his intentions
+before he has actually perfected them, or even decided himself.
+
+So perfect in this encounter was the strategy--so complete the
+ascendency of mind over instinct--and the keenest instinct of all, that
+of self-preservation--that in due time the intervening space had been
+diminished, yard by yard, almost to the fatal range. Presently the still
+hesitating birds are little more than one hundred yards away--the great
+sentinel some five yards nearer. Now: mark well every movement of
+his--there is the signal at last: his stately head is lowered--slowly
+lowered some six inches while he still watches intently. Now he takes a
+rapid step forward--he is going. But hardly have the huge wings unfolded
+than the rider has sprung to his feet, and a couple of charges of
+"treble A" crash together into that broad back and lowered neck. The
+distance is great--near 100 yards--but mould-shot and cold-drawn steel
+barrels have done it before, and will do it again: back to earth, which
+he had barely quitted, returns the stricken monarch of the plain, blood
+staining his snowy breast, and one great pinion hanging useless by his
+side.
+
+[Illustration: Plate X.
+
+ANCIENT DRAW-WELL ON THE PLAINS.
+
+Page 52.]
+
+The seven survivors wing away straight towards the point where the other
+gun lies hidden in the dry drain-head. Mark! Now the leading _barbon_
+checks his flight as he sees the flash of barrels beneath: but it is all
+too late, and down he, too, comes with a mighty crash, to earth. A
+third, offering only a "stern shot," continues a laboured flight, his
+pinion-feathers sticking out at sixes and sevens, and soon pitches on
+the verge of a marshy hollow where storks are dotted about in search of
+frogs. It was an awkward place, and necessitated moving him again:
+indeed, this bird gave no small trouble to secure. The sun had already
+set, and night drew on apace, ere the final shot, ringing out amidst
+gathering gloom, told that he, too, had been added to the spoils of that
+glorious afternoon.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+TAUROMACHIA,
+
+THE FIGHTING BULL OF SPAIN.
+
+ NOTES ON HIS HISTORY: HIS BREEDS AND REARING: AND HIS LIFE UP TO
+ THE "ENCIERRO,"--_i.e._, THE EVE OF HIS DEATH.
+
+
+We trust the reader may not fear that he is about to suffer once more
+the infliction of the oft-described Spanish bull-fight. We have no
+intention so far to abuse his patience. The subject is exhausted: has
+been dilated upon by almost every visitor to this country, though nearly
+always with inaccuracy and imperfect knowledge.
+
+It is customary for such writers to condemn the bull-fight[10] _in toto_
+on account of its cruelty: to denounce it without reservation, as a
+barbarous and brutal exhibition and nothing more. The cruelty is
+undeniable, and much to be deprecated; the more so as this element
+could, to a large extent, be eliminated. But, despite the fate of
+sacrificed horses, there are elements in the Spanish bull-fight that the
+British race are accustomed to hold in esteem--the qualities of pluck,
+nerve, and coolness in face of danger. To attack in single combat, on
+foot, and with no weapon but the sword, a powerful and ferocious
+animal, means taking one's life in one's hand, and relying for safety
+and final triumph on cool intrepid pluck, on a marvellous activity and
+truth of hand, eye, and limb, and on a nerve which not the peril even of
+the supreme moment can disturb.
+
+There are doubtless balanced minds which, while in no way ignoring or
+exculpating its cruelties, can yet recognize in the _toreo_ an
+unrivalled exhibition of human skill, nerve, and power, and can
+distinguish between the good and the bad among its heterogeneous
+constituents.
+
+The bull-fight, as a spectacle, has often been described: but no English
+writers have attempted to trace its origin and history; to explain its
+firm-seated hold on the affections of the Spanish people, and to show
+how their keen zest for the national sport goes back to the days of
+chivalry. Nor has anything been written of the agricultural, or pastoral
+side of the question, and of the picturesque scenes amidst which the
+earlier stages of the drama are enacted, on broad Iberian plain and
+prairie: of the feats of horsemanship and "derring do" at the
+_tentaderos_, or trials, and later at the _encierro_ on that hot summer
+morning when the gallant _toro bravo_ is lured for ever from his native
+pastures, and led by traitor kin within the fatal enclosure of the
+arena.
+
+The custom of the toreo, if not the art, is so ancient, its origin so
+lost in the mists of time, that it is difficult to fix the precise
+period at which bull-fighting was first practised. There is written
+evidence to show that encounters between men and bulls were not
+infrequent at the time of the Arab invasion in the eighth century, and
+it may be accepted that it was this eastern race that gave the diversion
+its first popularity.[11] It is proved beyond doubt that at the Moorish
+_fetes_ encounters with bulls were one of the chief sports, and when,
+centuries later, the Arab was finally driven from Spanish soil, they
+left behind them their passion for these conflicts, as they left many of
+their industries and many words of their language. Wherever the expelled
+Arabs may now be, it is at least certain that the bull-fight has taken
+root in no other land outside of Spain.[12] During the interludes of
+war, when the opposing forces of Moor and Christian made peace for a
+while, the inauguration of a truce was celebrated by a bull-fight,
+whereat knights of both sides rivalled each other in the tauromachian
+fray. The heroic Cid, el Campeador (_obiit_, A.D. 1098) signalized the
+contests of the eleventh century, himself taking the chief part. His
+graceful horsemanship in the arena was as favourite a theme for song and
+sonnet as even his redoubtable deeds in the field. The ever-popular
+ballad of _Don Rodrigo de Bivar_ is still heard in the mountain
+villages.
+
+So frequent and of such importance had these _fiestas_ become that,
+after the termination of Moorish dominion, Queen Isabel I. of Castile
+prohibited them by edict in all her kingdoms: but the edict proved waste
+paper. Alarmed by witnessing a _corrida_ at which human blood was shed,
+her Catholic majesty made strenuous efforts to put down bull-fighting
+throughout the land: but the national taste was too deeply implanted in
+the breasts of a warlike and powerful nobility, whom she was too prudent
+to offend. In a letter to her Father Confessor in 1493, she declares her
+intention never again to witness a _corrida_, and adds:--"Y no digo
+defenderlos (esto es prohibirlos) porque esto no era para mi a
+solas"--which is to say, that her will, which could accomplish the
+expulsion of the Moor and the Jew, was powerless to uproot the
+bull-fight.
+
+[Illustration: Plate XI.
+
+BULLS ON THE PLAINS.
+
+Page 57.]
+
+The power of the papacy was alike invoked in vain. In 1567 a papal bull
+issued by Pius V. prohibited all Catholic princes, under pain of
+excommunication, from permitting _corridas_ in their dominions; a
+similar punishment for all priests who attended them, and Christian
+burial was denied to all who fell in the arena. Not even these terrible
+measures availed, and succeeding Pontiffs were fain to relax the
+severity of the _bulas_ of their predecessors, since each successive
+prohibition was met by the magnates of the land arranging new
+_corridas_. At length the time arrived when masters of theology at
+Salamanca ruled that clerics of a certain rank might licitly attend
+these spectacles.
+
+Isabel's grandson, Charles I., killed with his own hand a bull in the
+city of Valladolid, during the festivities held to celebrate the birth
+of his eldest son, afterwards Philip II.; and, later, during the reigns
+of the House of Austria, to face a bull with bravery and skill, and to
+use a dexterous lance, was the pride of every Spanish noble.
+
+It was a gay and imposing scene in those days when the _lidia_, or
+tournament, took place--held in the largest open square of the town,
+around which were erected the graded platforms whence _Damas_ and
+_Caballeros_, in all the bravery of mediaeval toilet and costume, watched
+the performance.
+
+The people were permitted only a servile share in these aristocratic
+_fiestas_. The knight, mounted on fiery Arab steed, was armed only with
+the _rejon_, or short sharp lance of those days, five feet in length,
+and held at its extreme end. At a given signal he sallied forth to meet
+the bull, which, infuriated by sight of horse and rider, dashed from his
+trammels and went straight to the charge. The first blow of his horns,
+if driven home, meant death: and the horseman's art lay in avoiding the
+impact by a well-timed move to the left: at the same moment, by an
+adroit counter-move, empaling with his lance the lower neck: and so
+delivering the thrust as to clear himself and horse from the rebound of
+the bull. This manoeuvre required dexterity, coolness, and strength of
+arm: and when successful was graceful in the highest degree, eliciting,
+as the rider curvetted away from his worsted and enraged antagonist,
+the loudest applause, and dark-eyed _Damas_, with flashing glances of
+pride and sympathy, would throw flowers to the valiant Paladin.
+
+ "The ladies' hearts began to melt,
+ Subdued by blows their lovers felt;
+ So Spanish heroes with their lances
+ At once wound bulls and ladies' fancies."
+
+When the bull fell dead from a single thrust enthusiasm knew no bounds:
+to administer this fatal stroke in masterly style was the ambition of
+the flower of Spanish youth.
+
+If dismounted, the knight, by established rule, must face the bull on
+foot, sword in hand. He was allowed the assistance of his slaves or
+servants, who, at the risk of their lives, "played" the brute till an
+opportunity was afforded for a death-thrust from their master's sword.
+It is in this phase of the fight that we trace the origin of several of
+the _suertes_ which are practised in the modern Corrida de Toros.[13]
+
+With the accession of the Bourbons to the Spanish throne came a change.
+These rude encounters were little in harmony with the elegance and
+effeminacy of the French court. So coldly were they regarded that, by
+slow degrees, the Spanish nobility withdrew themselves from the arena.
+Then, as Gallic manners and customs prevailed and extended beyond court
+circles till adulation of the French monarch became a creed, the Spanish
+gentry abandoned their ancient sport.
+
+But the hold of the national pastime on the Moro-hispanic race was too
+firm-set to be swept away by alien influence, however strong: and when
+thus abandoned by the patricians, by the hidalgos and grandees of Spain,
+the sport of bull-fighting was taken up by the Spanish people. It was
+at this period (towards the end of the eighteenth century) that the
+Corridas de Toros, as now practised (with slight variations), were
+established and organized. Bull-rings and paid _matadores_ took the
+place of the city square and the knight. Many additions to the original
+corridas were inaugurated, and the sport assumed more diversified and
+even more dangerous forms.
+
+The first professional matadors were the brothers Juan and Pedro Palomo,
+followed by the celebrated names of Martinez Billon (el Africano),
+Francisco Romero and his son Juan, Jose Delgado Candido (better known as
+Pepe Hillo), who died in the Plaza of Port St. Mary on the 24th June,
+1771, and, later on, Rodriguez Castellares, Geronimo Candido, son of
+Jose (Pepe Hillo), who fell mortally wounded at Madrid, 11th May, 1802,
+and many more of high tauromachian fame.[14]
+
+Most of the Plazas de Toros, or bull-rings, of the first class, were
+erected at this period--that at Madrid in 1741, at Seville, 1768, at
+Aranjuez, 1796, Saragoza, 1764, Puerto Sta. Maria, 1771, Ronda, 1785,
+and Jerez de la Frontera, 1798.
+
+The master-hand who directed and perfected this reorganization, on
+popular lines, of the national _fiesta_, after the Bourbon influence had
+alienated the aristocracy from their ancient diversion, was PEPE HILLO:
+who established the rules and etiquette and drew up the tauromachian
+code of honour, written and unwritten, which, in the main, prevails at
+the present day. None more fully recognize the ability and prowess of
+this 'gran maestro' of old than the famous matadors who are to-day the
+highest living exponents of tauromachian art--men such as Frascuelo,
+Lagartijo and Mazzantini, whose names are household words from the
+Bidasoa to the Mediterranean.
+
+Andalucia has always been, and still remains, the province where the
+love of the bull and all that pertains to him is most keenly cherished,
+and where the modern bull-fight may to-day be seen in its highest
+perfection and development. It provides both the best bull-fighters and
+most valued strains of the fighting bull. It may be added that the
+Andalucian nobility were the last of their order to discontinue their
+historic pursuit: and when, during the darker days of this sport, the
+Royal order of the Maestranza de Sevilla was created by Philip V., it
+was conceded in the statutes that members of the order could hold two
+corridas with the long lance annually outside the city walls. Three
+gentlemen subsequently received titles of exalted nobility of this order
+in respect of brilliant performances with the lance.
+
+Though Andalucia is the stronghold both of the Toro and of the
+Toreador--the scene of the popular bull-fighting opera of _Carmen_ is
+appropriately laid at Seville--yet the oldest of all the Spanish herds
+is pastured in the rough country around Valladolid, in Old Castile. This
+caste has been in existence since the fifteenth century: from it the old
+nobility selected their bulls, and it furnished the kingly contests of
+Philip and Charles III. This herd is known as _El raso del Portillo_,
+and, though entitled to pre-eminence in respect of antiquity, yet
+several of the more modern breeders command higher prices. The
+ever-increasing demand has driven the cost of a "warrantable"
+five-year-old bull up to L70 or L80. To succeed in uniting the various
+qualities required in an animal of this value, great judgment in
+breeding and a considerable outlay are necessary.
+
+[Illustration: Plate XII.
+
+THE MORN OF THE FIGHT--BULLS IN THE TORIL. (Miura's Breed.)
+
+Page 61.]
+
+At the age of one year, the young bulls are separated from the heifers,
+each animal branded on the side with the insignia of its herd, and on
+the neck with its number therein, and turned out loose on the plains to
+graze with its companions of similar age and sex. When the youngsters
+have passed another year, their critical time has arrived, and their
+first trials for mettle and fighting qualities take place. The brave are
+set aside for the Plaza: the--comparatively--docile destroyed, at least
+by scrupulous breeders; while from the chosen lot a further selection is
+made of the sires for perpetuating the breed. From the moment the
+fighting bulls are selected, they are treated with the utmost care, and
+for two years more roam at liberty over the richest pasturage of the
+wide unfrequented prairies. At four years old they are moved into the
+_cerrados_, or enclosures--fields of great extent, surrounded by a
+wooden stockade and double ditch. The _cerrado_ they never leave till
+bound for the Plaza. Should pasture fail through drought or deluge, they
+are fed on tares, vetch, and maize--even with wheat. Their _debut_ in
+public must be made in the highest possible condition. The bulls should
+be, at the time, not less than five nor more than seven years old.
+
+While thus grazing at large on the open plain, the bulls are in charge
+of herdsmen over whom is the official known in Castile as _mayoral_, in
+Andalucia as _conocedor_, assisted by his _ayudante_. These two spend
+their lives in the saddle, each carrying the long "garrocha," or lance,
+as a defensive weapon. The herdsmen go on foot, each armed with a sling,
+in the use of which they are adepts.
+
+To return to the two-year-old point in the bull's life--that is, as we
+have stated, the critical stage in his existence, for then his "trial"
+takes place.
+
+It is also an important period for the owner, for upon the proportion of
+good-mettled, "warrantable" beasts depends the profit and reputation of
+the herd. It is customary for the owner and his friends to be present at
+these _tentaderos_ or trials: and a bright and picturesque scene they
+afford, thoroughly typical of untrodden Andalucia, and of the buoyant,
+careless exuberance and dare-devil spirit of her people.
+
+Nowhere can the exciting scenes of the _tentadero_ be witnessed to
+greater advantage than on the wide level pastures which extend from
+Seville to the Bay of Cadiz. Here, far out on the spreading "vegas,"
+carpeted with rich profusion of wild flowers and pasturage, where the
+canicular sun flashes yet more light and fire into the fiery veins of
+the Andaluz--here occurs the first scene in the drama of the _Toreo_.
+For centuries these flowery plains have been the scene of countless
+_tentaderos_, where the "majos,"--young bloods,--generation after
+generation, revel in feats of skill, courage, and horsemanship. Both
+good riding and staying power are often called into requisition by those
+taking an active part in the operations.
+
+The night before the trials take place, the usually quiet and
+sequestered Estancia (or rancho) is a scene of unwonted revelry. The
+owners of the herd and many friends--all _aficionados_ of the
+sport--have come up from the distant town to take part in the selection
+of the morrow--as this work commences at early dawn, the night must be
+spent on the spot. The rude walls of the rancho resound with boisterous
+hilarity, dance and song succeed each other, to the vigorous notes of
+the guitar--sleep is not to be thought of, good humour, gaiety, and no
+small admixture of practical joking pass away the night, and by the
+first of the daylight all are in the saddle. The two-year-old-bulls have
+previously been herded upon a part of the estate which affords the best
+level ground for smart manoeuvre and fast riding, and here the duty of
+keeping the impetuous beasts together--no easy task--is allotted to
+skilled herdsmen armed with long _garrochas_--lances of some four yards
+in length, with short steel tips. As just mentioned, it is no easy work
+to keep the young bulls together, for they are anxious to break away and
+dart off to join their friends in the distance. When all is ready the
+herdsmen allow one bull to escape across the flat open country, pursued
+by two horsemen who are awaiting the moment, _garrocha_ in hand. These
+men rival each other to place the first lance and to turn the bull over.
+This is effected by planting a blunt-tipped _garrocha_, on the bull's
+_off-flank_, near the tail, when a powerful thrust, given at full speed,
+overthrows him: but obviously the feat requires a good eye, a firm seat,
+and a strong arm. Immediately the bull is over, with his four feet in
+the air, another horseman, who has ridden close behind, comes up. He is
+armed with a more pointed lance, and is called _el tentador_. On rising,
+the bull finds this man between him and his companions in the _rodeo_,
+to whom he would now fain return. He immediately charges the obstacle,
+receiving on his shoulder the _garrocha_ point; thrown back for a
+moment, and smarting under this first check to his hitherto unthwarted
+will, he returns to the charge with redoubled fury, but only to find the
+horse protected as before: the pluckier spirits will make a third or a
+fourth attack, but those which freely charge _twice_ are passed as fit
+for the ring.
+
+Sometimes the young bull declines to charge the _tentador_, submitting
+quietly to his overthrow, and only desiring to escape. He does not get
+off without a second fall; but if, after this, he still refuses to
+charge, he is at once condemned--doomed to death, or at best a life of
+agricultural toil. A note is taken of each selected bull (its colour,
+size, and shape of horns, and general appearance); and each is entered
+in the herd-book, under a particular name--such as Espartero,
+Cardinillo, Linares, Flamenco, and the like. By these names they are
+known, and at the end publicly described in the flaming "posters" and
+advertisements of the _Corrida_ at which they are to make their final
+appearance.
+
+Nor is there anything modern in this individualizing of the champions of
+the arena. In the Moorish ballads ("The Bull-Fight of Gazul"), so
+happily translated by Lockhart, we find the "toro bravo" had his name in
+those days:--
+
+ "Now stops the drum; close, close they come; thrice meet,
+ and thrice give back:
+ The white foam of Harpado lies on the charger's breast of black--
+ The white foam of the charger on Harpado's front of dun;--
+ Once more advance upon his lance--once more, thou fearless one!"
+
+It often happens, when a bull is singled out from the _rodeo_, that he
+does not take to his heels as expected, but charges the nearest person,
+on foot or mounted, that he may see. Then look out for squalls! The
+danger must be averted, when it _is_ averted, by skill and experience;
+but it seldom happens that one of these trial-days passes without broken
+bones or accidents of some kind or other. The men engaged in these
+operations have, of course, no shelter of any kind; but the Spanish
+herdsmen, when taken at disadvantage, are adepts in the use of their
+jackets, with which they give "passes" to the bull, who always follows
+the moving object. A smart fellow, when caught in the open, can thus
+keep a bull off him for several moments, giving time for the horsemen to
+come up to the rescue. Even then it is no unusual occurrence to see
+horsemen, horse and bull all rolling together on the turf in one common
+ruin. A bright-coloured scarf or mantle will always draw away the bull
+from his prostrate foe; otherwise there would soon be an end of
+_tentadores_, bull-branders, and bull-fighters too, for the matter of
+that.
+
+Each animal in the herd is put through the tests we have described, the
+proportion selected varying according to the excellence and purity of
+the strain: and then, for three years longer, the selected bulls
+continue to lead a life of ease and abundance upon the smiling
+Andalucian _vega_.[15]
+
+Skill in handling the _garrocha_, and the ability to turn over a running
+bull, are accomplishments in high esteem amongst Spanish youth. Names
+now famous in politics or diplomacy (Don Luis Albereda, for example,
+late Spanish Minister at St. James's, the Duke of San Lorenzo, and many
+more), are still mentioned in Andalucia as past experts in the records
+of this southern diversion--a fame analogous to that of our foremost
+steeple-chase riders at home.[16]
+
+The _tentadero_ at the present day affords opportunity for aristocratic
+gatherings, that recall the tauromachian tournaments of old. Even the
+Infantas of Spain enter into the spirit of the sport, and have been
+known themselves to wield the _garrocha_ with good effect, as was, a few
+months ago, the case at a brilliant _fete champetre_ on the Sevillian
+_vegas_, when the Condesa de Paris and her daughter, Princess Elena,
+each overthrew a sturdy two-year-old; the Infanta Eulalia riding "_a
+ancas_," or pillion-fashion, with an Andalucian nobleman, among the
+merriest of a merry party.
+
+[Illustration: Plate XIII.
+
+THE _ENCIERRO_.
+
+Page 65.]
+
+At length, however, the years spent in luxurious idleness on the silent
+plains must come to an end. One summer morning the brave herd find
+grazing in their midst some strange animals, which appear to make
+themselves extremely agreeable to the lordly champions, now in the
+zenith of magnificent strength and beauty. The strangers grazing with
+them are the _cabrestos_ (or _cabestros_, in correct Castilian), the
+decoy-oxen sent out to fraternize for a few days with the fighting race,
+preparatory to the _encierro_, or operation of conveying the latter to
+the town where the corrida takes place. Each _cabestro_ has a large
+cattle-bell, of the usual Spanish type, suspended round its neck, in
+order to accustom the wild herd to follow the lead of these base
+betrayers of the brave. Shortly the noble bulls will be lured in their
+company away from their native plains, through country paths and
+byeways, to the entrance of the fatal _toril_.
+
+An animated spectacle it is on the eve of the _corrida_, when, amidst
+clouds of dust and clang of bells, the tame oxen and wild bulls are
+driven forward by galloping horsemen and levelled _garrochas_. The
+excited populace, already intoxicated with bull-fever and the
+anticipation of the coming corridas, lining the way to the Plaza,
+careless if in the enthusiasm for the morrow they risk some awkward rips
+to-day.
+
+Once inside the lofty walls of the _toril_, it is easy to withdraw the
+treacherous _cabestros_, and one by one to tempt the bulls each into a
+small separate cell, the _chiquero_, the door of which will to-morrow
+fall before his eyes. Then, rushing upon the arena, he finds himself
+confronted and encircled by surging tiers of yelling humanity, while the
+crash of trumpets and glare of moving colours madden his brain. Then the
+gaudy horsemen, with menacing lances, recall his day of trial on the
+distant plain, horsemen now doubly hateful in their brilliant glittering
+tinsel. No wonder the noble brute rushes with magnificent fury to the
+charge.
+
+[Illustration: A BULL-FIGHTER.]
+
+What a spectacle is presented by the Plaza at this moment!--one without
+parallel in the modern world. The vast amphitheatre, crowded to the last
+seat in every row and tier, is held for some seconds in breathless
+suspense: above, the glorious azure canopy of an Andalucian summer sky:
+below, on the yellow arena, rushes forth the bull, fresh from his
+distant prairie, amazed yet undaunted by the unwonted sight and the
+bewildering blaze of colour which surrounds him. For one brief moment
+the vast mass of excited humanity sits spell-bound: the clamour of
+myriads is stilled. Then the pent-up cry bursts forth in frantic volume,
+for the gleaming horns have done their work, and _buen toro! buen toro!_
+rings from twice ten thousand throats.
+
+The bull-rings are mostly the property of private persons, though some
+are owned by corporations, others by charitable institutions, and the
+like. The bull-fights themselves, however, are always in the hands of an
+_empresario_, who hires the building at a rent, supplies the bulls and
+_troupe_, and takes the whole arrangements in his own hands and for his
+own account.
+
+The cost of a modern bull-fight in Andalucia ranges from L1,100 to
+L1,200. Six bulls are usually killed, their value averaging L70. The
+_Espada_, or Matador, receives on the day from L120 to L200, including
+the services of his cuadrilla or troupe, which consists of two picadors,
+three banderilleros, and a cachetero. As there are always two matadors
+with their respective cuadrillas engaged, this makes in all fourteen
+bull-fighters. The cost of the horses is about L120 to L200, a variable
+quantity, depending so much on the temper and quality of the bulls.
+Against this, there are from ten to twenty thousand seats to be let in
+the ring, the prices of which vary from a peseta or two in the _Sol_ or
+sunny side, up to a couple of dollars or more in the _Sombra_.[17]
+
+The president of the corrida is usually the alcalde or mayor of the
+town--sometimes the civil governor of the province, always some person
+of weight and authority, though the alcalde is responsible for the
+orderly conduct of the corrida, even should he delegate the
+presidential chair to some one of higher authority. He is required to
+examine the bulls before the fight: that is, to see that they bear the
+brand of the herd advertised, and have no visible defect; then he must
+inspect the horses; even the banderillas and the garrochas, the points
+of which latter must be shortened as autumn approaches. Till the alcalde
+appears in his tribune, the fight may not commence, and during the
+spectacle he orders the incoming of each bull, the time which the
+picadors shall occupy with their lances: he directs the trumpets of his
+attendant heralds to sound the changes in the fight, when banderilleros
+succeed picadors, and for the final scene, when the matador steps alone
+upon the arena, with scarlet cloak and gleaming sword.
+
+[Illustration: AN _ESPADA_, OR MATADOR.]
+
+It will thus be seen that the presidential function involves a fairly
+deep knowledge of all the arts and etiquette of tauromachian science.
+Under intelligent direction, accidents in the ring and tumults amongst
+dissatisfied multitudes are avoided--without it, the reverse.
+
+We have now traced in brief outline the life-history of our gallant
+bull; we have brought him face to face with Frascuelo and his Toledan
+blade; there we must leave him. But, in concluding this chapter, may we
+beg the generous reader, should he ever enter the historic circle of the
+plaza, to go there with an open mind--without prejudice, and unbiassed
+by the floods of invective which have ever been let loose upon the
+Spanish bull-fight.
+
+Let critics remember, if only in extenuation, what the spectacle
+represents to Spain--a national festival, the love of which we have
+shown to be ineradicable, ingrained in Spanish nature by centuries of
+custom and tradition. Let them reflect, too, that those brutal domestic
+scenes which disgrace so many a home among the poor of other lands are,
+in the land of the bull-fighter, unknown. Lastly, let them remember that
+upon untrained eyes there must fall flat many of the finer passes, much
+of the elaborate technique and science of tauromachian art: points which
+are instantly seized and appreciated by Spanish experts--and in Spain
+_all_ are experts. This is lost to the casual spectator, who perceives
+less difficulty in the perilous _vol-a-pie_ than in the simpler, though
+more attractive, _suerte de recibir_, and a thousand other technical
+details.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE BAETICAN WILDERNESS.
+
+SPRING-NOTES OF BIRD-LIFE, NATURAL HISTORY, AND EXPLORATION IN THE
+MARISMA.
+
+PART I.--APRIL.
+
+
+Andalucia may roughly be subdivided into four main regions, unequal in
+extent, but of well-marked physical characters and conformation. These
+are the sierras, and the rolling corn-lands, at both of which we have
+already glanced. Then there are the _dehesas_--wild, uncultivated wastes
+or prairies, of which more anon. Lastly, there are the _marismas_.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+We have in English no equivalent to the Spanish "marisma," and these
+regions are so peculiar, both physically and ornithologically, as to
+require a short description. Geologically, the marismas are the deltas
+of great rivers, the alluvial accumulations of ages, deposited, layer
+upon layer, on the sea-bottom till the myriad particles thrust back the
+sea, and form level plains of dry land. The struggle between rival
+elements does not terminate, but the attacks of the liquid combatant
+only seem to result in still further assuring the victory of _terra
+firma_, by banking up between the opposing forces an impregnable
+rampart of sand. The latter, overlying the margin of the rich alluvial
+mud, is thus capable, in its hollows and deeper dells, of sustaining a
+luxuriant plant-life, which in turn serves to fortify and consolidate
+its otherwise unstable consistency.[18]
+
+The largest of the Spanish marismas, and those best known to the
+authors, are those of the Guadalquivir. If the reader will look at a map
+of Spain, there will be noticed on the Lower Guadalquivir a large tract
+totally devoid of the names of villages, &c. From Lebrija on the east to
+Almonte on the west, and from the Atlantic almost up to Seville itself,
+the map is vacant. This huge area is, in fact, a wilderness, and in
+winter the greater part a dismal waste of waters. For league after
+league as one advances into that forbidding desolation, the eye rests on
+nothing but water--tawny waters meeting the sky all round the horizon.
+The Guadalquivir intersects the marisma, its triple channel divided from
+the adjacent shallows and savannahs by low mud-banks. The water of the
+marisma is fresh, or nearly so--quite drinkable--and has a uniform depth
+over vast areas of one or two feet, according to the season. Here and
+there slight elevations of its muddy bed form low islands, varying from
+a few yards to thousands of acres in extent, covered with coarse
+herbage, thistles and bog-plants, the home of countless wild-fowl and
+aquatic birds. In spring the water recedes; as the hot weather sets in
+it rapidly evaporates, leaving the marisma a dead level of dry mud,
+scorched and cracked by the fierce summer sun. A rank herbage springs
+up, and around the remaining water-holes wave beds of tall reeds and
+cane-brakes.
+
+In winter the marshy plains abound with wild-fowl, ducks, geese, and
+water-birds of varied kinds; but of the winter season in the marisma,
+its fowl and fowlers, we treat fully hereafter.
+
+The spring-months abound in interest to the naturalist. Imagination can
+hardly picture, nor Nature provide, a region more congenial to the
+tastes of wild aquatic birds than these huge marismas, with their silent
+stretches of marsh-land and savannahs, cane-brake and stagnant waters,
+and their profusion of plant and insect life. Here, in spring, in an
+ornithological Eden, one sees almost daily new bird-forms. During the
+vernal migration the still air resounds with unknown notes, and many of
+those species which at home are the rarest--hardly known save in books
+or museums--are here the most conspicuous, filling the desolate
+landscape with life and animation. The months of February and March
+witness the withdrawal of most of the winter wild-fowl. Day after day
+the clouds of Pintails and Wigeon, of Shovellers, Pochards, and Teal,
+and fresh files of grey geese wing their way northwards; while their
+places are simultaneously being filled by arrivals from the south. April
+brings an influx of graceful forms and many sub-tropical species, for
+which Andalucia forms, roughly speaking, the northern limit; while in
+May is superadded a "through transit," which renders the bird-life of
+that period at times almost bewildering.
+
+But before attempting to fill in the details, it is necessary to explain
+the mode of travel and the methods by which these wildernesses can be
+investigated. Uninhabited and abandoned to wild-fowl and flamingoes, and
+lying remote from any "base of operations," the exploration of the
+marismas is an undertaking of some difficulty. They cannot, owing to
+their extent, be worked from any single base; hence, thoroughly to
+explore them and penetrate their lonely expanses, necessitates a
+well-equipped expedition, independent of external aid, and prepared to
+encamp night after night among the tamarisks or samphire on bleak islet
+or barren _arenal_. Some of our earlier efforts, twenty years ago,
+resulted in total failure. Setting out by way of the river, the light
+launches suitable for the shallow marisma proved unequal to the voyage
+up the broad Guadalquivir; while, on the other hand, the larger craft in
+which that exposed estuary could be safely navigated were useless in the
+shallows. One attempt was frustrated by sunstroke; on another our
+Spanish crew "struck" through stress of weather, leaving us at a lonely
+spot some thirty miles beyond Bonanza with no alternative but to submit,
+or go on alone. We had, however, some reward for this enforced tramp in
+discovering the Dunlin (_Tringa alpina_) nesting at a point over a
+thousand miles south of any previous record of its breeding-range.
+Finally, we chartered at San Lucar a large fishing-yawl, bound up-river,
+and after a long day in that malodorous craft, beating up against wind
+and stream, and with our three punts in tow, we at length succeeded in
+launching them on the waters of the middle marismas.
+
+[Illustration: FISHING BOAT ON THE GUADALQUIVIR.]
+
+The geese and wigeon had entirely disappeared--this was early in
+April--but passage-ducks still skimmed in large flights over the open
+waters. These were chiefly Mallards, with Pintails and Pochards (both
+species), a few Teal, Garganey, and probably other species. We also shot
+Shovellers out of small "bunches," and among the deep sluices of some
+abandoned salt-pans (_salinas_), where we spent the first night, three
+or four Tufted Ducks, and a pair of Pochards. I killed a single Scoter
+drake as late as April 13th, and was shown as a curiosity a Cormorant
+which had been killed by some fishermen on the river a day or two
+before.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+One cannot go far into the marisma without seeing that extraordinary
+fowl, the Flamingo, certainly the most characteristic denizen of the
+wilderness. In herds of 300 to 500, several of which are often in sight
+at once, they stand like regiments, feeding in the open water, all heads
+under, greedily tearing up the grasses and water-plants that grow
+beneath the surface. On approaching them, which can only be done by
+extreme caution, their silence is first broken by the sentries, which
+commence walking away with low croaks: then the whole five hundred necks
+rise at once to full stretch, every bird gaggling his loudest as they
+walk obliquely away, looking back over their shoulders as though to take
+stock of the extent of the danger. Shoving the punt a few yards forward,
+up they all rise, and a more beautiful sight cannot be imagined than the
+simultaneous spreading of their thousand crimson wings, flashing
+against the sky like a gleam of rosy light. Then one descends to the
+practical, and a volley of slugs cuts a lane through their phalanx.
+
+In many respects these birds bear a strong resemblance to geese. Like
+the latter, Flamingoes feed by day: and quantities of grass, etc., are
+always floating about the muddy water at the spot where a herd has been
+feeding. Their cry is almost indistinguishable from the gaggling of
+geese, and they fly in the same chain-like formations. The irides of the
+oldest individuals are very pale lemon-yellow: the bare skin between the
+bill and the eye is also yellow, and the whole plumage beautifully
+suffused with warm pink. In the young birds of one year (which do not
+breed) this pink shade is entirely absent, and even their wings bear but
+slight traces of it. The secondaries and tertiaries of these immature
+birds are barred irregularly with black spots, and their legs, bills and
+eyes are of a dull lead colour. In size flamingoes vary greatly: the
+largest we have measured was fully six feet five inches--there are some
+quite seven feet--while others (old red birds) barely reached five feet.
+
+The further we advanced into the marisma the more abundant became the
+bird-life. Besides ducks and flamingoes, troops of long-legged Stilts in
+places whitened the waters, and chattering bands of Avocets swept over
+the marshy islets: around these also gyrated clouds of Dunlins in full
+breeding-plumage: smaller flights, composed of Kentish plovers and
+Lesser Ring-dotterel mixed, with Redshanks and Peewits: the two latter
+paired. One morning at daybreak, a pack of two hundred Black-tailed
+Godwits pitched on an islet hard by our camp, probably tired with a long
+migratory journey, for these wary birds allowed two punts to run almost
+"aboard them," and received a raking broadside at thirty yards.[19] On
+April 11th we obtained a single Grey Phalarope (_Phalaropus
+fulicarius_), swimming like a little duck on an open _arroyo_, and the
+Sanderling, Green and Common Sandpipers, were all abundant, together
+with Ruffs and Reeves, though in mid-April the former still lacked the
+full nuptial dress. Greenshanks and Knots we did not meet with then;
+though a month later (in May) swarms of both these species, together
+with Whimbrels, Grey Plovers, and Curlew-Sandpipers, all in perfect
+summer plumage, poured into the marisma, to rest and recruit on their
+direct transit from Africa to the Arctic.
+
+On April 8th the Pratincoles arrived, and thenceforward their zigzag
+flight and harsh croak were constantly in evidence all over the dry mud
+and sand, where they feed on beetles. In 1891 we observed a "rush" of
+these birds, some arriving, and others passing over high, almost out of
+sight, on the 11th of April. Sometimes a score of these curious birds
+would cast themselves down on the bare ground all around one, some with
+expanded wings, and all lying head to wind, much as a nightjar squats on
+the sand. Pratincoles resemble terns when standing, but run like
+plovers, and on summer evenings, with the terns, they hawk after insects
+like swallows. Their beaks have a very wide gape which is bordered with
+vermilion.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Another conspicuous bird-group in the marisma are the herons, of which
+seven or eight species are here, more or less numerous. Besides the
+Common and Purple Herons, the Buff-backed, Squacco, and Night Herons,
+Egrets, Spoon-bills, and Glossy Ibis are also found, and several of one
+kind or the other can generally be descried on the open marsh--the
+first-named often perched on the backs of the cattle or wild-bred ponies
+of the marisma, ridding them of the ticks and "warbles," or embryo
+gadflies which burrow in the poor brutes' hides. The rush-girt
+_arroyos_, or stagnant channels, were dotted with these most elegant
+birds, some actively feeding, plunging their heads under to catch the
+darting water-beetles as they dive, others resting quiescent in every
+graceful pose. Here is a description of such a spot:--_April 29th._
+Lying this morning in the punt, well hidden among thick tamarisks, in
+the _arroyo_ del Junco Real, we had no less than twelve interesting
+species within 200 yards: ducks of four kinds dipped and splashed on the
+open water, viz.:--Mallards, Garganey, Marbled Duck, and one pair of
+handsome, heavy-headed "Porrones" (_Erismatura leucocephala_). Sundry
+Stilts, Egrets, and four Squacco Herons stalked sedately in the
+shallows--one of the latter presently perching on a broken bulrush
+within ten yards of the boat. A group of Avocets slept standing, each on
+one leg, on a dry point; and further away, two Spoonbills were busy
+sifting the soft mud with curious revolving gait. Coots and Grebes
+(_Podicipes nigricollis_) kept dodging in and out among the flags and
+aquatic plants, and a Marsh-Harrier, whose mate was sitting in an
+adjoining cane-brake, soared in the background. This is not counting the
+commoner kinds, nor several others which we afterwards observed close
+by: the above were all in sight, mostly in shot, at one spot.
+
+The Coots and Mallards have eggs in March, the Purple Heron early in
+April: on the 9th we found the first nest, merely an armful of the long
+green reeds bent down, and containing one blue egg. The other herons
+nest very late--in June.
+
+One other bird-group remains to be briefly mentioned--the _Larinae_. In
+so congenial a resort they are, of course, in force: but in early April
+few gulls, beyond the British species, are noticeable[20]--of others,
+anon. The Whiskered Tern (_Hydrochelidon hybrida_) came in swarms during
+the first days of April, followed on the 13th by the Lesser Tern, and at
+the end of the month by _H. nigra_, the Black Tern, all of which abound,
+gracefully hovering over every pool or reed-choked marsh. The larger
+Gull-billed Tern (_Sterna anglica_) is also common in summer in the
+marisma, where we have taken the eggs of all four species.
+
+The utter loneliness and desolation of the middle marismas are a
+sensation to be remembered. Hour after hour one pushes forward across
+the flooded plain, only to bring within view more and yet more vistas of
+watery waste and endless horizons of tawny water. On a low islet in the
+far distance stand a herd of cattle--mere points in space: but they,
+too, partake of the general wildness, and splash off at a galop while
+yet a mile away. Even the horses or ponies of the marisma seem to have
+reverted to their original man-fearing state, and are as shy and timid
+as any of the _ferae naturae_. After long days on the monotonous marisma,
+one's wearied eyes at length rejoice at a vision of trees--a dark green
+pine-grove casting grateful shade on the scorching sands beneath. To
+that oasis we direct our coarse: but it is a fraud, one of Nature's
+cruel mockeries--a mirage. Not a tree grows on that spot, or within
+leagues of it, nor has done for ages--perhaps since time began.
+
+Upon a dreary islet we land to form a camp for the night: that is, to
+arrange our upturned punts around such scanty fire as can be raised from
+a few armfuls of tamarisks and dead thistles--all that our little domain
+produces--assisted by a few pine-cones, brought for the purpose in the
+boats. Dinner is cooked in the little block-tin camp-stove, or _sarten
+prusiano_, as the Spaniards call it, which only demands a modicum of
+lard and a sharp fire to reduce a rabbit or a duck to eatable state
+within a few minutes. The fare which can be obtained by the gun at this
+season is meagre enough: ducks or plovers are sorry food for hungry men,
+though a hare, shot on a grassy savanna, is acceptable enough; nor are
+the eggs of coot or peewit to be despised. Later, we experimented on
+many oological varieties, especially Stilt's and Avocet's eggs. The
+latter are excellent, boiling pale yellow and half opaque, like those of
+plover: but the Stilt's eggs are too red in the yolk to be tempting. Our
+men were not so squeamish: but then they did not even stick at the eggs
+of Kites or Vultures. After all, it is safer to rely in the main on
+Australian mutton, tinned ox-tongues from the Plate, or indigenous
+"jamon dulce;" but the difficulties of transport in tiny _lanchas_
+forbid one's being entirely independent of local fare.
+
+The memories of our earliest experiences in the Spanish marismas, in
+April, 1872, do not fade. The glorious wild-life fascinated and
+exhilarated, while youthful enthusiasm ignored all drawbacks. But in
+later years it is perhaps excusable if a slight doubt of the bliss of
+campaigning in winter may temporarily arise when one is awakened in the
+middle watches of the night by sheer penetrating cold, finds the fire
+burnt out, the trusted _Espanoles_ all asleep, and the tail of a big
+black snake sticking out from under one's bed, or the poke of straw
+which is serving the purpose.
+
+The night of April 10th we spent at Rocio, a squalid hamlet clustered
+around the chapel of Nuestra Senora del Rocio, an ancient shrine visited
+yearly at the vernal festival by faithful pilgrims. We were tired of the
+cold and comfortless nights _sub Jove_ in the marisma, where upturned
+punts afforded scant shelter from the piercing winds of the small hours,
+and where the chill exhalations of night kept one awake listening to the
+chorus of frogs and flamingoes and the melancholy boom of the bittern.
+It was hardly a change for the better, for a more wretched ague-stricken
+spot we have seldom beheld, and in the dirty little _posada_ man and
+beast were reckoned exactly equal in relation to the "accommodation"
+they require. The bed provided was a dirty mat of esparto grass, six
+feet by two, unrolled and laid on the bare ground: but the mosquitoes
+and other insect plagues made sleep impossible, and the night was spent
+in skinning the day's captures. The four-league tramp, however, through
+sandy, scrub-covered plains, was a relief from the monotonous marisma,
+and there were fresh birds for a change. The low, soft, double note of
+the Hoopoe was ubiquitous; brilliant Bee-eaters, Rollers, and Golden
+Orioles flashed like jewels in the sunshine, amidst the groves of wild
+olive and alcornoque: Southern Grey Shrikes (_Lanius meridionalis_)
+mumbled their harsh "wee h[=a]te" from some tree-top or tall shoot of
+cistus, and Turtle-doves actually swarmed--all these birds (except the
+shrikes) newly returned from African scenes. We also observed a pair of
+Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers, and a single Azure-winged Magpie--the only
+occurrence of the latter we had then met with in this district, though
+further inland it is common near Coria del Rio, and towards Cordova it
+becomes plentiful. Near Rocio, also, we obtained the Red-backed Shrike,
+a species not previously recorded from Southern Spain.
+
+Another interesting bird seen and shot this day for the first time was
+the Great Spotted Cuckoo (_Coccystes glandarius_), and shortly
+afterwards, while sitting at lunch during the mid-day heat, a female
+Hen-Harrier, which slowly passed within very long shot, and caused me to
+upset my last bottle of Bass. This was the latest date on which we
+saw this strictly winter-visitant to Andalucia, none remaining to breed,
+though it is plentiful enough in winter, and frequently observed while
+snipe-shooting.
+
+[Illustration: Plate XIV.
+
+BOOTED EAGLE--Female, shot 11th April, 1872.
+
+Page 81.]
+
+Early next morning (April 11th) we started to explore the wooded swamps
+called La Rocina de la Madre--a nasty place to work: consisting of
+thousands of grassy tussocks, each surrounded by bog, in some places
+moderately firm and safe, in others, apparently similar, deep and
+dangerous, and everywhere swarming with leeches. In the centre of the
+open marsh, surrounded by quaking-bog and a dense growth of aquatic
+vegetation, rose a thick clump of low trees, whose snake-like roots were
+growing out of the black and stagnant water. These trees were occupied,
+some laden, with hundreds of stick-built nests, the abodes of the
+southern herons some of which we have already mentioned--Egrets,
+Squaccos, Buff-backs, Night-Herons, and the like: but nearly all this
+group nest very late (in June), and the colony was at this season
+tenantless. In subsequent years we have obtained in these wooded swamps
+the eggs of all the European herons: though it is not _every_ summer
+that they repair thither to breed. In very dry seasons none are to be
+seen, but after a rainy spring, these heron-colonies of the marisma are
+indeed a wondrous sight--an almost sufficing reward for enduring the
+heat, the languor-laden miasmas, and the fury of the myriad mosquitos
+and leeches which in summer infest these remote marshy regions.
+
+Climbing across the gnarled tree-roots to the other end of the thicket,
+we found a larger nest, and just as we emerged on the open, its owner, a
+female Booted Eagle, passed within reach as she slowly quartered the
+marsh, and fell to a charge of No. 2. This small, but compact and
+handsome species, has been confounded with the Rough-legged Buzzard; but
+no one who has seen _Aquila pennata_ on the wing could mistake it for
+anything but an eagle. The nest proved empty, after a difficult climb up
+a briar-entwined trunk: but on the following day we found another, in
+the first fork of a big cork-tree, containing one white egg. Three is
+the full number laid by the Booted Eagle.
+
+In another part of the wood was a nesting colony of the Black Kite
+(_Milvus migrans_), several of which soared high overhead. These birds
+hardly commence domestic duties in earnest before May, but after some
+trouble I succeeded in shooting a fine adult: also a pair of Purple
+Herons, of which we found three nests, and a single Roller (_Coracias
+garrulus_) from her nest in a broken stump, which contained one egg.
+After this we were obliged to beat a retreat, for the swarming hordes of
+leeches had developed so strong a taste for the bare legs of our two men
+that a return to _terra firma_ became necessary.
+
+The whole region for many a league around Rocio is one dead-flat
+plain--dry scrubby brushwood or stagnant marsh and marisma. To the
+northward, in the farthest distance are discernible the dim blue
+outspurs of the Sierra de Aracena; but beyond its charms to naturalist
+or sportsman, the district has few other attractions. After spending ten
+days in the wilderness, we set our faces homewards, and were not sorry
+on the third evening, after re-traversing the waste, to sight once more
+the white towers and lustred domes of San Lucar de Barameda.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE BAETICAN WILDERNESS.
+
+SPRING NOTES OF BIRD-LIFE AND NATURAL HISTORY IN THE MARISMA.
+
+PART II.--MAY.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+On a bright May morning we set out for a fortnight's sojourn in the
+western marismas. For the last few miles the route lies through broken
+woodlands, all wrapt in the glory of the southern spring-time. There is
+no lack of verdure here at mid-winter--not even the deciduous trees are
+ever really bare: but in May the whole plant-world is fresh-clad in
+brightest garb and beauty--it is worth staying a moment to examine such
+prodigal luxuriance. Before us, for example, is a grove of stone-pines,
+embedded to their centres amidst dark green thicket; through the massed
+foliage of lentiscus and briar shoots up a forest of waving bamboos,
+tall almost and straight as the pines themselves; the foreground filled
+with the delicate mauve of rosemary, with giant heather and heaths of a
+dozen hues, all wrestling for space, with clumps of pampas-grass and
+palmetto, genista, butcher's-broom, and wild fennel. Here a mass of
+_abolaga_, or Spanish gorse, ablaze with golden bloom; an arbutus
+blanched with waxen blossoms, or the glossy foliage of mimosa; there the
+sombre tones of the ilex are relieved by the pale emerald of a wild vine
+entwined upon the trunk. Even the stretches of grey gum-cistus have
+become almost gaudy with their pink, white, and pale yellow flowers. The
+air breathes of vernal perfumes, and the infinite chorus of spring
+bird-notes--the soft refrain of Goldfinch and Serin, Nightingale,
+_Hypolais polyglotta_, Orphean and other warblers, the dual note of
+Hoopoe, and flute-like carol of Golden Orioles, mingled with the harsher
+cries of Woodchat and Bee-eater, and on all sides the 'voice of the
+Turtle was heard in the land.'
+
+The sun was high in the heavens ere we cleared the fragrant _pinales_;
+yet in the last rushy glade we rode suddenly into a herd of wild pig;
+females with their half-grown young--probably the exigencies of the
+season explained their being astir at so unusual an hour. Shortly
+afterwards the writer almost trod on two boars, deeply slumbering in an
+isolated thicket--one an old tusker, grizzly with age, and looking
+almost white as he trotted away across the dunes.
+
+Presently, through a vista of the forest, we sighted the marisma, its
+muddy expanse to-day blue as the Mediterranean. An animated scene lay
+before us; the wastes were thronged with bird-life. The horizon
+glistened with the sheen of Flamingoes in thousands, and the intervening
+space lay streaked and dotted with flights and flotillas of aquatic
+fowl. The nearer foreshores, fringed with rush and sedge and dark
+stretches of tamarisk, were peopled with Storks and Herons, Egrets,
+Spoonbills, Stilts, Avocets, and other waders. While breakfasting under
+a spreading pine, we observed commotion among our feathered
+neighbours--the whole multitude had risen on wing as a single Booted
+Eagle swept over the scene.
+
+[Illustration: Plate XV.
+
+PINTAILED SAND-GROUSE: FEMALE. (_Pterocles alchata_.)
+
+Page 85.]
+
+Rambling along the shore, we obtained many beautiful specimens by
+stalking, including most of those above named, as well as a pair of
+Marbled Ducks, a wild-cat, and other "sundries." Presently we observed
+with the glass a score or so of Knots, in full red summer-plumage,
+busily feeding rather far out. While creeping to them, a Marsh-Harrier
+rose from some rushes close at hand; I knocked him down and found he was
+lunching on a Knot. The latter we could not see again--though later in
+the month they were in thousands--but made out a "bunch" of Greenshanks
+feeding a little further on, one of which fell to a long shot--an
+immature bird. Curiously, we found no adults here, though in March they
+were numerous in some disused _salinas_ beyond Tangier, but no young
+ones. The adults are distinguishable by their whiter appearance at a
+distance.
+
+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 three packs of Sand-Grouse (_Pterocles alchata_).
+They were excessively wild, flying fast and high, something like teal,
+anon like plover, and uttering a chorus of harsh croaks. On the open
+marsh we almost despaired of outmanoeuvring them. We stuck to them,
+however, and, after many failures, obtained some beautiful specimens of
+both sexes, and well worth the trouble they were; for no bird we have
+ever seen rivals the Pin-tailed Sand-Grouse for delicacy of pencilling
+and the harmonious contrasts of infinite colours in its plumage. In the
+females especially, the spring-plumage is so variegated as to defy
+description, the patterns, so to speak, being as elaborate as the tints.
+Briefly, her back is finely reticulated with yellows and browns, blacks
+and maroons of various shades, all relieved by clean-cut bars of pale
+blue. Her head is speckled above the black line which passes through the
+eye; below that, the cheeks and throat are plain buff, and the chest
+clear bright chestnut, doubly margined with black and with a pale blue
+band above. In the male the features of the spring-plumage are a black
+throat, and a line of that colour through the eye. The pale sage-green
+back is covered with large lemon spots, some of which extend to the
+scapulars and tertiaries. The eye-circlets and eyelids are bright blue
+in both sexes, and at all seasons: of their winter-dress and habits we
+write elsewhere; but no description or sketch of ours can do adequate
+justice to this gem among birds.
+
+The name of sand-grouse is not appropriate, for they are in no sense
+grouse, and are never found on sand--always on mud, and when shot their
+feet and bills are generally covered therewith. There is another and
+larger species, the Black-bellied Sand-Grouse (_Pterocles arenarius_),
+which is not found _here_, but is very abundant in parts of the upper
+marisma, towards Seville, and especially in the so-called Isla Menor,
+where we have shot several when bustard-driving, and found a nest with
+three long elliptic eggs on May 28th, besides seeing several others
+found by our men. These birds--in Spanish _Corteza_--nest on the bare
+pasturages of the upper marisma, and also on the high central plateaux
+of Spain, in Castile, La Mancha, &c., a very different region. The
+Pin-tailed species is known as _Ganga_, signifying a bargain, in
+reference to its edible qualities.
+
+[Illustration: STILTS--HOVERING OVERHEAD.]
+
+After heavy rains in April, the mud and water in the marisma were
+unpleasantly deep for either riding or walking--we had now abandoned the
+punts; and on the low islands many thousands of eggs had been destroyed
+by the rising of the water. A great variety of birds were now nesting,
+Stilts and Avocets being, perhaps, the most conspicuous. We found a few
+eggs of both on the mud-flats to-day (May 5th), but a few days later
+they were in thousands. The Stilts make a fairly solid nest of dead
+black stalks of tamarisk, &c., and lay four richly-marked eggs, all
+arranged points inwards; the Avocet's eggs are larger and lighter in
+colour, and these birds seldom have any nest at all, the three eggs
+merely laid at random on the bare cracked mud, often an inch or two
+apart. Three is the usual complement.
+
+[Illustration: AVOCETS.]
+
+A most curious picture do these singular birds present, either while
+flying past or hovering overhead on quick-beating pinions, with their
+absurdly long legs extending far behind like dead straws. The Avocet is
+much the more sprightly and game-like of the two, with his shrill pipe
+and elegant flight, now rapid and "jerky," now skimming low on the
+water. But we never tire of watching the quaint actions and postures of
+the Stilts, troops of which stalk sedately in the shallows close at
+hand. So extremely long are the legs of this bird that, with their short
+necks, they cannot reach down to the ground, nor pick anything up
+therefrom. They are consequently only to be seen feeding in water about
+knee-deep, for which purpose their peculiar build specially adapts
+them, picking up seeds, insects and aquatic plants from the surface.[21]
+
+We found many nests of Peewit and Redshank, those of the latter by far
+the best concealed, always in some thick clump of grass or samphire.
+Such familiar notes sound strangely incongruous amid the exotic
+bird-medley around, and the fact of their remaining to nest so far south
+is an ornithological curiosity. Birds which are at once inhabitants of
+the extreme north of Europe, and yet capable of enduring the
+summer-heats of the Andalucian plains, set at nought one's ideas of
+geographical distribution. As already mentioned, we also found in April
+the Dunlin nesting on the lower Guadalquivir, and our friend Mr. W. C.
+Tait has detected the Common Sandpiper remaining to breed on the Lima
+and Minho in Portugal.
+
+There also lay scattered on the dry mud many clutches of smaller eggs
+belonging to two other species, the Kentish Plover and Lesser
+Ring-dotterel. The latter, less common, were only beginning to lay,
+choosing the drier, gravelly ridges of the islets. The eggs of the
+Kentish plover we had found as early as April 14th, and in May many were
+already much incubated. Neither of these make any nest--nothing but a
+few broken shells--and some eggs were deposited in a hollow scratched in
+dried cattle-droppings. On these islands were also many nests of the
+Spanish Short-toed lark (_Calandrella baetica_, Dresser--a species
+peculiar to this region), artlessly built of dry grass, and placed in
+small hollows like a dunlin's, sometimes among thistles, as often on
+bare ground without covert. We found the first eggs on May 9th. On the
+larger grassy islands there also breed the Calandra, Crested and
+Short-toed Larks, with Ortolan, Common and Reed-buntings.
+
+_May 8th, 1872._--A remarkable passage of waders occurred to-day: the
+banks of the Guadalete swarmed with bird-life, some of the oozes crowded
+with plovers, &c., as thick as they could stand. A mixed bag included
+whimbrels, grey plovers, ring-dotterel, curlew-sandpiper, sand-grouse,
+&c. Many of the Grey Plovers were superb specimens in perfect
+black-and-white plumage, and the Curlew-Sandpipers in richest rufous
+summer-dress. Unfortunately, the attractions of the Great Bustard,
+several of which were also in sight, proved irresistible: but I had the
+satisfaction of riding home that evening with my first bustard slung to
+the _alforjas_. The next day, as is often the case, hardly a
+passage-bird was to be seen, and my bag only contained a pair of Grey
+Phalaropes, and a female Montagu's Harrier.
+
+[Illustration: GREY PLOVERS--SUMMER-PLUMAGE.]
+
+_May 9th, 1883._--The effects of dawn over the vast desolations of the
+marisma were specially beautiful this morning. Before sunrise the
+distant peaks of the Serrania de Ronda (seventy miles away) lay flooded
+in a blood-red light, and looking quite twice their usual height. Half
+an hour later the mountains sank back in a golden glow, and long before
+mid-day were invisible through the quivering heat-haze and the
+atmospheric fantasies of infinite space. Amid a chaotic confusion of
+mirage-effects, we rode out across the level plain--at first across dry
+mud-flats, partly carpeted with a dwarf scrub of marsh-plants, in places
+bare and naked, the sun-scorched surface cracked into rhomboids and
+parallelograms, and honeycombed with deep cattle-tracks made long ago
+when the mud was moist and plastic. Then through shallow marsh and
+stagnant waters, gradually deepening. Here from a rushy patch sprang
+three yeld hinds from almost underfoot, and splashed off through the
+shallows, their russet coats gleaming in the morning sunlight. Gradually
+the water deepened: _mucha agua, mucho fango!_ groaned Felipe; but this
+morning we intended to reach the very heart of the marisma: and before
+ten o'clock were cooking our breakfast on a far-away islet whereon never
+British foot had trod before, and which was literally covered with
+Avocets' eggs, and many more.
+
+Here, while I was busy selecting, numbering, and preparing some of the
+most typical clutches, Felipe, whom I had sent to explore another islet
+close by, came up with five eggs, which he said he thought must be
+gull's. I saw at a glance he was right, and jumping up, espied among the
+clamorous crowd of marsh-terns, avocets, stilts, pratincoles, and other
+birds overhead, a single pair of strangers--small, very long-necked
+gulls. These I promptly knocked down, and at once recognized as _Larus
+gelastes_, one of the rarest of the South European gulls, and of whose
+breeding-places and habits comparatively little was known. Only a few
+days before I had received a letter from Mr. Howard Saunders especially
+enjoining me to keep a strict look-out for "the beautiful pink-breasted,
+Slender-billed Gull"; we therefore at once commenced a careful
+investigation of all the islands in sight, never dreaming but that our
+two gulls and the five eggs were duly related to each other. It was
+therefore with no small surprise that shortly afterwards I found another
+gull's nest containing two very different eggs (white ground, spotted
+with black and brown like those of _Sterna cantiaca_), from which I
+also shot a female _L. gelastes_.[22] This time, however, there was no
+room for doubt: for the bird while in its death-throes actually laid a
+third egg in the water--a perfectly coloured and developed specimen, the
+exact counterpart of the two in the nest. Then, to make assurance doubly
+sure, I found on skinning the first pair of gulls that the female
+contained a fourth perfectly developed specimen of this very distinct
+egg. This of course placed the identity of the eggs of _L. gelastes_
+beyond doubt: it was, however, equally certain that the first five eggs
+(which were dull greenish or stone-colour, faintly spotted with brown)
+belonged to some other species. Accordingly I returned to the
+first-named islands, and at once perceived two or three pairs of small
+black-hooded gulls: these had doubtless been overlooked in the morning,
+mixed up as they were among numbers of gull-billed terns and other
+birds. They would not allow approach within shot, so I was obliged to
+risk a long chance with wire-cartridge. The bird was "feathered," but
+escaped at the moment. Two days afterwards, however, on a second visit,
+I found it lying dead, and recognized it by the jet-black hood and
+strong bill as _Larus melanocephalus_, another of the rarer gulls, and
+presumably the owner of one of the first two nests. Those of the
+slender-billed gull, it should be added, were composed of yellow flags,
+the nests of _L. melanocephalus_ of black tamarisk-stalks and other dark
+materials. To obtain in a single morning the nests of two of the rarest
+of European breeding birds was a measure of luck that rarely falls to
+the lot of an ornithologist: though the discovery, made a few hours
+later, of the breeding quarters of the flamingoes, appears to carry more
+ornithological kudos--_quantum valeat_.
+
+_May 11th._--The Pratincoles are now beginning to lay--one or two eggs
+in each nest: but subsequently we got them in baskets-full. Some of
+these eggs when freshly-laid have a beautiful purplish gloss. Three is
+their complement, and they make hardly any nest, merely a few broken
+chips of shells. We also found to-day, on the marismas of Guadalete, two
+nests of the Montagu's Harrier, each with five or six eggs, mere
+outlines of broken twigs arranged on the bare soil, one among low scrub,
+the other in the corn. The Marsh-Harrier breeds much earlier. We found
+this year three nests at the end of March--much more solid structures,
+built of dead flags, &c.: one was in standing corn, another on the
+ground in a cane-brake, the third on the top of a dense bramble-thicket,
+fifteen feet high--a very awkward place to get at. Occasionally, where
+there was much water, we have found the Montagu's Harrier also nesting
+in brushwood, three or four feet above the ground. In the water beneath
+are strewn skulls of rabbits, vertebrae of lizards, &c.
+
+[Illustration: IN THE MARISMA--STILTS.]
+
+Later, again, are the Terns: the Whiskered and Black species
+(_Hydrochelidon hybrida_ and _H. nigra_) breed in colonies both in the
+open marisma and on the lagoons of the Coto Donana, building their nests
+far out on the lilies and floating water-weeds. All these lay three
+eggs, those of the Whiskered Tern mostly greenish with black spots, a
+few olive-brown. The eggs of the Black Tern are much smaller, and of a
+rich liver-brown, heavily blotched with black. The larger Gull-billed
+Tern (_Sterna anglica_) breeds only on the islets of the marisma. I
+obtained their eggs, and those of the Lesser Tern (_S. minuta_) on my
+first visit on the 23rd of May.
+
+These islands which we have just described lay some six or eight miles
+from the low shores of the marisma, and at that distance no land
+whatever was in sight. The _coup d'oeil_ therefrom presented an
+extraordinary scene of desolation. The only relief from the monotony of
+endless wastes of water were the birds. A shrieking, clamouring crowd
+hung overhead, while only a few yards away the surface was dotted with
+troops of stilts sedately stalking about, knee-deep--in no other
+situation do their long legs permit them to feed. Further away large
+flights of smaller waders flashed--now white, now dark,--in the
+sunlight. Most of these were ring-dotterels, dunlins, and
+curlew-sandpiper, the two latter in full summer-plumage. A
+marsh-harrier, oologically inclined, was being bullied and chased by a
+score of peewits: and now and then a little string of ducks high
+overhead would still remind one of winter. Beyond all these, the strange
+forms of hundreds of flamingoes met one's eye in every direction--some
+in groups or in dense masses, others with rigidly outstretched necks and
+legs flying in short strings, or larger flights "glinting" in the
+sunshine like a pink cloud. Many pairs of old red birds were observed to
+be accompanied by a single white (immature) one. But the most
+extraordinary effect was produced by the more distant herds, the immense
+numbers of which formed an almost unbroken white horizon--a thin white
+line separating sea and sky round a great part of the circle.
+
+But this chapter is long enough, and we must reserve for another the
+rest of our experiences among the flamingoes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+WILD CAMELS IN EUROPE.
+
+
+An incident occurred during our exploration of the marismas in the
+spring of 1883 which illustrates the desolate and unknown character of
+these wildernesses, and also brought to light a curious fact in natural
+history. Far away on the level plain I noticed two large animals
+evidently watching me. They were certainly not deer, which in spring
+often wander out into the marisma, but never so far as to where I then
+was. They stood too high on their legs for deer, and had a much greater
+lateral width as they stood facing me--their contour, in fact, somewhat
+resembled a couple of the long-stemmed, conical-topped, stone-pines,
+which are so characteristic of the adjoining woodlands. But there was
+something in their appearance even at the distance that prompted an
+attempt to reach closer quarters--there was a distinct _game-look_ about
+them. I changed my cartridge for ball, and attempted an approach with
+all available caution, lying flat in the saddle and advancing obliquely
+by long "tacks," besides using the _patero's_, or native duck-shooter's,
+device of stopping at intervals to give the horse an appearance of
+grazing. But it was no use: while still a quarter of a mile away, the
+strangers simultaneously wheeled about and made off with shambling gait.
+Then for the first time, when their broad-sides were exposed to view, I
+saw that they were two camels, one much larger than the other.[23]
+Probably no one who reads this will be more surprised than was the
+writer at the apparition of the long-legged, long-necked, hump-backed
+pair; but there was no room for mistake, for a camel is like nothing
+else in creation.
+
+[Illustration: Plate XVI.
+
+THE SPANISH WILD CAMELS--OUR FIRST SIGHT OF A PAIR IN THE MARISMA.
+
+Page 94.]
+
+The camels appeared to have no great pace, and for some distance I
+pursued them, but it was hopeless. Between us lay an _arroyo_, one of
+those wide stagnant channels that in spring intersect the dry parts of
+the marisma in all directions; and before getting clear of this,
+splashing through some hundred yards of mud and water, the bactrians
+were far away, scudding across a dead-level plain that extended to the
+horizon.
+
+I had heard on my first visit to this wilderness (in 1872) of the
+existence of camels therein, and that they had lived there wild for
+forty years or more, but was as incredulous as perhaps some of our
+present readers may be, and as some certainly were when I first
+mentioned the fact in the _Ibis_, in January, 1884, though then
+corroborated by Mr. Howard Saunders, one of the joint-editors, in the
+following foot-note:--"I saw a small herd of these feral camels in the
+Coto de Donana, on the 3rd of May, 1868; but, finding that my statement
+as to the breeding of the crane in that neighbourhood was received with
+much incredulity, I kept the apparition of the camels to myself. I
+possessed the eggs of the crane to convince the sceptics, but I could
+not have produced a camel." Shortly afterwards the statement was
+somewhat contemptuously criticized by an anonymous writer in _The
+Field_, who claimed to be himself acquainted with the marismas, and
+ridiculed the idea of camels existing there in a wild state. "The
+startling statement," wrote _Inhlwati_, "as to the existence of wild
+camels in the neighbourhood of Seville or Lebrija has taken me and my
+friends who know that country well by utter surprise; and that camels
+should have been roaming about there and breeding, so to speak, as
+perfectly wild animals in a state of nature, seems to us utterly
+incredible.
+
+"The marismas in the summer time are covered with cattle, and of course
+they are accompanied everywhere by their herdsmen; and, so to speak,
+every foot of open ground is more or less under daily inspection. And,
+as the camel is a grazing animal, it would naturally be found in the
+more open parts of these marismas or marshes, where they could hardly
+have avoided detection and, as a certain consequence, capture or death
+for so long a period as you mention.
+
+"So valuable an animal would be such a prize to the poor Spanish
+peasants, that they would turn out to a man to obtain it; and there are,
+besides, too many English sportsmen at Seville and Jerez to allow the
+chance of so novel a chase to slip through their hands unnoticed.
+
+"I may mention that a company is in existence for the drainage and
+better utilization of these marismas of Lebrija, and I can hardly
+imagine that such animals as camels could have escaped the notice of
+their surveyors and staff during their detailed surveys of the district.
+
+"I may add, that my friend, the Belgian Consul at Seville, happens to be
+with me now, and quite agrees with what I have said. It would be very
+interesting if you could obtain any further news about these strange
+wanderers."
+
+To this the following foot-note was appended by the Editor of _The
+Field_:--"It is somewhat strange that our correspondent should ask for
+further information respecting animals whose existence he regards as
+'utterly incredible.' But the statement has not been made that there are
+wild camels anywhere near Seville. The districts explored by Mr. Abel
+Chapman are far removed from human habitation, and are not those in
+which herds of domestic cattle are ever seen. The fact that Mr. Chapman
+described for the first time the singular nests of the flamingo, which
+exists there in colonies, that have never before been figured [see next
+chapter], proves that neither _Inhlwati_ nor his friend can know the
+country well, and that 'every foot of ground' cannot possibly, as he
+states, 'be open to daily inspection.' The fact that the camels have
+been observed on different occasions by two well-known naturalists--men
+trained to the close and accurate observation of animals, who both give
+their names--should have entitled their remarks to a different
+reception."
+
+We have inserted the above extracts in full partly because they are a
+good example of the reckless way some people are prone to rush into
+print, and who, because they may have some acquaintance with a subject,
+think they are thereby entitled to speak as with complete knowledge. The
+marismas of Lebrija are, as a matter of fact, many miles away on the
+other side of the Guadalquivir.
+
+No doubt it is a "startling statement" that wild camels are roaming at
+large in Europe, or anywhere else--it would hardly seem more incredible
+if a herd of hippopotami were reported in the Upper Thames. The camel
+has never within historic times been known to exist in a wild state: it
+has always been the servant of man, a beast of burden and
+domesticity.[24] More than this, a certain physical disability or cause
+has been alleged to exist, which, if correct, would render their
+permanent continuance, in a natural state, an impossibility. Nor could
+any region be well conceived so ill-adapted--indeed repulsive--to the
+known habits and requirements of an animal always associated with arid
+sandy deserts, as the Spanish marismas, which, always marshy, are
+subject to actual inundation during six months out of the twelve.
+
+The discussion had, at any rate, the merit of evoking the following
+additional information respecting the Spanish camels, their introduction
+and habits. First I will quote a letter from my co-author, dated from
+the Coto Donana, March 1st. "Dear Chapman,--Your letter has reached me
+here, where we are shooting deer for the last time this season. I am
+glad I happened to be on the spot, having an opportunity of asking the
+_guardas_ and others for the facts respecting the camels, which I hope
+will be sufficient to convince the sceptics of their existence here and
+of the truth of your observation, which I am surprised to hear has been
+called in question.
+
+"The camels were brought here first from the Canary Isles by Domingo
+Castellanos, _Administrador_ to the Marques de Villa Franca, in 1829,
+he intending to make use of them in the Coto for transporting timber,
+charcoal, &c. The descendants of this Domingo, the two brothers Barrera
+of Almonte, now own the fifty or sixty animals which make the marisma
+lying between the Coto proper and the Guadalquivir their feeding-ground.
+They seldom appear on the wooded parts, remaining winter and summer in
+the marisma, moving with the greatest ease in winter through the mud and
+water, from one island to another, occasionally coming to the woods to
+pasture on the tops of the young pines.
+
+"You know, from your flamingo experiences, how vast a waste is comprised
+between the borders of the Coto and the river (Guadalquivir) which
+accounts for the camels being seldom seen except by herdsmen and others
+(Mr. Abel Chapman, to wit) whose business may take them out into the
+watery wilderness. Manuel Ruiz, _conocedor_ of the Villa-Vilviestre
+herd,[25] now tells me that at about three-quarters of a league from the
+Cerro-Trigo he saw yesterday three females with their young, which he
+judged to be about twenty days old.
+
+"I can send you any further particulars required, and if the unbelievers
+will not swallow your camel, we must do what Mr. Saunders did with the
+doubted specimen [of the crane's egg], and bring before them a
+Spanish-born camel, hump and all. Nothing is easier. Sport pretty good
+so far--five stags, four pigs, two lynxes."
+
+We are also kindly privileged to quote the following statement of Lord
+Lilford's personal observation of the wild camels:--"I was not aware
+till I saw Saunders' note at the end of your paper and read the
+subsequent correspondence in _The Field_, that any one doubted the
+existence of camels in a virtually wild state in the marisma. I once saw
+four or five of them together at a vast distance, and, in 1872, came
+across their 'spoor' several times when exploring the marismas of the
+Coto. Their existence is perfectly well known to many people at San
+Lucar, and, no doubt, also at Jerez. I heard of them first in
+1856.... What Mr. Buck says of the habits of the camel is, as far as I
+can remember, pretty much what I heard from several of the _guardas_ of
+the Coto in 1872.... My son reminds me of what I had quite forgotten,
+viz., that he and our doctor saw some camels in the marisma somewhere on
+the proper right of the western branch of the Guadalquivir last May
+(1888), when I was confined to my ship by an attack of gout in the right
+hand."
+
+[Illustration: Plate XVII.
+
+WILD CAMELS--THROUGH THE BINOCULARS
+
+Page 98.]
+
+Lastly, we quote the following from a "Catalogue of the Mammalia of
+Andalucia," by Don Antonio Machado y Nunez, published at Seville in
+1869:--"The first camels, which were introduced with the object of
+breeding them, came from the Canary Islands, and in a few years became a
+herd of about eighty. In 1833, a few years after introduction, they were
+used as beasts of burden and transport in the province of Cadiz,
+employed in the carriage of materials used in making the high road from
+Port St. Mary to San Lucar de Barrameda (more than thirty years ago),
+and also in conveyances to Arcos, Jerez, Chichlana, and other towns. But
+some untoward accidents on the roads through horses being frightened at
+the sight of such strange animals,[26] and the necessity of separating
+them from horses in the yards, combined with other matters easy to
+remedy, caused them to fall into disuse as beasts of burden and
+carriage, and thus the economy and advantages obtained by their
+introduction were lost. They were then used for agricultural purposes,
+and some lands which Don Rafael de Barrera holds are at this time (1869)
+cultivated by the aid of camels, which are used for ploughing and other
+agricultural work."
+
+At the present time the descendants of these camels live and nourish in
+the marismas in a wholly wild state, and since the sequestration of the
+Messrs. Barrera are practically ownerless.
+
+We have fallen in with them on several subsequent occasions. On January
+6th, 1888, we descried a herd of nineteen, of various sizes, all
+dreamily ruminating, knee-deep in the marisma, each form reflected in
+the still water beneath. Our whole shooting-party (including seven or
+eight Englishmen) enjoyed the sight, the herd remaining in view during
+the half-hour we spent at lunch on the edge of the marisma. With
+powerful field-glasses we brought the camels close up, and watched them
+putting their heads down as though grazing on the grasses beneath the
+surface. Presently they moved on to a rushy islet some three miles from
+the shore: hard by stood a rosy troop of flamingoes, and the intervening
+waters were dotted with numberless fleets of ducks and geese. It was a
+unique spectacle, one that could hardly be matched outside this
+out-of-the-world corner of Europe.
+
+In 1890, and again several times in the spring of 1891, we fell in with
+camels. On March 5th we rode within 500 yards of eight, two of which
+were about the size of sheep. In appearance they are very shaggy beasts,
+and vary much in colour, some being of a light tawny hue, while others
+are very dark brown, but all seem _grey_ about the neck.
+
+On one of these occasions a curious incident occurred. It was in
+December, 1890--an intensely cold and dry season, almost unprecedented
+in Spain for the severity of the frost--when, in mid-marisma, leagues
+from water or covert, and specially on the look-out for camels, a keen
+eye detected in the far distance a roving fox. All dismounted, and
+letting the horses graze, hid behind them and awaited his approach.
+Then, with only a single _podenco_, or hunting-dog, _Frascuelo_ by name,
+and after a straight-away chase of five or six miles at top-speed over a
+sun-dried plain, bare and level as a billiard-table, we fairly rode bold
+Reynard down, and killed him.
+
+As evidence of the "staying powers" of the camel, our friend Antonio
+Trujillo tells us that some years ago he came on one stuck in a bog. For
+six days he was unable to reach the spot, and daily watched the poor
+beast helplessly floundering. On the seventh day he found it possible to
+assist the camel to escape. All around within reach of the poor
+creature's mouth, he found that the very earth was eaten away. Yet when
+helped to regain firm ground, the camel walked quietly away, apparently
+but little the worse, and was soon browsing heartily on the tops of some
+young pine-trees.
+
+It is, perhaps, worth adding, in reference to the antipathy shown by
+horses towards camels, that when during the night bands of the latter
+have occasionally strayed from the marismas to the vicinity of our
+shooting-lodge of Donana, at once a commotion has broken out in the
+stables, though placed in an enclosed square. All at once the horses
+have begun shrieking, kicking, and displaying every sign of fear, which
+could only be explained by their detecting the effluvia of some passing
+camels.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+AMONG THE FLAMINGOES.
+
+NOTES ON THEIR HAUNTS AND HABITS, AND THE DISCOVERY OF THEIR
+"INCUNABULA."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+Though Flamingoes are found in many of the countries bordering on the
+Mediterranean, and their rosy battalions are familiar to Eastern
+travellers through Egypt and the Suez Canal, yet their mode of nesting,
+and especially the manner in which birds of so singular a form could
+dispose of their extremely long legs while incubating, has remained an
+unsettled question. Till within the last decade, in default of more
+recent observations, sundry ancient fables have passed current. Dampier
+described the nests of flamingoes seen by him two hundred years ago--in
+September, 1683--on one of the Cape de Verde Islands, as being high
+conical mounds of mud upon which the female sat astride ("Voyages," i.,
+pp. 70, 71); and for two centuries this cavalier position has been
+accepted as history, no further observations having been made, though
+flamingoes have nested irregularly in various parts of Europe--even in
+France (in the marshy Camargue, the delta of the Rhone), and in Southern
+Spain.
+
+In the latter country several efforts have been made by naturalists to
+obtain more precise knowledge of the breeding habits of the flamingo,
+especially by Lord Lilford and Mr. Howard Saunders, but, from various
+causes, without definite results. "The heat on those plains in June,
+when the flamingoes are said to nest," wrote the latter, "is something
+tropical, and it is no joke to wander for days over a district as large
+as our 'Eastern Counties,' on the _chance_ of stumbling upon a colony of
+flamingoes somewhere or other." The element of chance, however, is a
+potent factor, and it eventually fell to the writer's lot to discover
+that for which other and better naturalists had sought in vain. The
+following is a narrative of our explorations in the marisma in the
+spring of 1883:--
+
+The first encounter with flamingoes that year had a somewhat ludicrous
+result: after riding all day across the wastes, we had arrived towards
+sunset within sight of our quarters for the night, when a herd of these
+birds was observed feeding in a reed-girt creek. They seemed unusually
+favourably placed for a stalk--for these wary fowl seldom approach
+within shot of the slightest covert; but on reaching the outermost
+rushes, the pack was seen to be at a hopeless range, and rose
+immediately on my appearance. To my surprise, a "treble A"
+wire-cartridge nevertheless dropped four--three falling direct to the
+shot, and a fourth "towering" and falling dead a little further out. One
+tall fellow was only winged, and seeing that he was walking right away
+from me, and getting into deeper water, Felipe took my horse and rode
+round to cut him out. Meanwhile the short twilight was over, and
+darkness overtook us some distance out in the dreary marisma. In the
+gloom I mistook the bearings, and only, after splashing about for a time
+that seemed eternal, managed to reach the shore, laden with three huge
+birds, wet through, hungry, and hopelessly lost. For a mile or two I
+struggled on through thorn and tangled brushwood, till at last, coming
+suddenly upon a herd of sleeping beasts--bulls, for all I could tell--I
+gave it up, and decided to weather out the night in the jungle, with the
+sand for a couch, and a flamingo for a pillow. Great was the relief,
+about midnight, to hear a distant shot; I responded with a fusillade,
+and shortly afterwards B----, with Felipe, and Trujillo's mighty frame
+loomed through the darkness, and the duress was at an end.
+
+[Illustration: FLAMINGOES ON FEED.]
+
+During the month of April we searched the marisma systematically for the
+breeding-places of the flamingoes: but though we explored a large area,
+riding many leagues in all directions from our base through mud and
+water, varying from a few inches to three or even four feet in depth,
+yet we could see, at this season, no sign of nests. Flamingoes there
+were in plenty, together with ducks, divers, waders, and many kinds of
+aquatic birds already described: but the water was still too deep--the
+mud-flats and new-born islets not sufficiently dried for purposes of
+nidification, and as far as we could see the only species which had
+actually commenced to lay were the purple herons, coots, Kentish
+plovers, peewits, and some others.
+
+Of the flamingoes themselves we secured several more lovely specimens;
+during two mornings devoted to shooting them, we bagged eight, six
+adults in rich rosy plumage, and two immature. Flamingoes are always shy
+and watchful birds, and their great height gives them a commanding view
+of threatening dangers: but there are degrees in intensity of wildness,
+and despite the unquestionable difficulty of flamingo-shooting, we would
+certainly not place these long-necked birds in the first rank among
+impracticable wild-fowl. Wild geese, for example, many of the
+duck-tribe, and nearly all the larger raptores far exceed them in
+incessant vigilance and downright astuteness. Flamingoes, however, will
+not, as a rule, permit of approach by the ordinary Spanish method of the
+stalking-horse, or _cabresto_: while the treacherous pony is still two
+gunshots away, the warning croak of the sentries is given, and at once
+the whole herd start to walk away, opening out their ranks as they move
+off. The method we found most effective to secure them was by partially
+surrounding a herd with a line of mounted men, who rode far out beyond
+them and then drove them over our two guns, each concealed behind his
+horse and crouching knee-deep in water. Of all the dirty work that
+wild-fowling in its many forms necessitates, this flamingo-driving takes
+the palm. It is mud-larking pure and simple, man, horse, and gun alike
+encased in a clinging argillaceous covering like the street-Arab
+amphibians below London Bridge.
+
+It is a fine sight to see a big flight of flamingoes, say five hundred,
+coming well in to the gun--_entrando bien a la escopeta!_ The whole sky
+is streaked with columns of strange forms, and the still air resounds
+with the babel of discordant croaks and cries. How wondrously they
+marshal those long uniform files, bird behind bird without break or
+confusion, and how precisely do those thousand black wing-points beat in
+rapid regular unison! Flamingoes are not "hard" birds: their feathers
+being loose and open, and the extremely long necks a specially
+vulnerable part, they may be brought down from a considerable height
+even with small shot. One evening, while collecting specimens of small
+birds on the open marsh, the writer killed a pretty right-and-left at
+flamingoes with No 6. Happening to see them on the wing a long way off,
+I lay down flat among the low samphire-scrub and presently had them
+(five) right overhead. Both these birds fell stone-dead. On another
+occasion, many years before, at the Veta Lengua, our four barrels, each
+loaded with nine treble-nesting slugs, brought down three fine
+flamingoes from a herd rising at upwards of 180 measured paces. But
+having obtained specimens, we did not further molest these singular
+birds.
+
+[Illustration: A RIGHT-AND-LEFT AT FLAMINGOES.]
+
+Flamingoes were not the sole attraction: the desolate region around
+abounded with wild life, furred and feathered, and many a pleasant
+bye-day was put in among the "vermin." One morning we rode out to some
+distant thickets where a neighbouring herdsman--half peasant, half
+poacher--complained that a family of lynxes were working havoc among his
+kids. Our friend, a man of square iron-knit frame, with the eyes and
+claws of an eagle, rode before us, no less than eleven wire-haired
+_podencos_ (hunting-dogs) made fast to his saddle-bow by cords of
+twisted esparto. The first thicket tried held a lynx, which, disturbed
+by the _podencos_, bolted at speed right between us and rolled over
+with a dose of "treble A" about her lugs. From this one small _mancha_
+the dogs put out, besides the lynx, several partridge and rabbits, a
+Montagu's harrier, and a pair of mallards! This lynx was a female, a
+full-grown and handsome example of _Felis pardina_, much infested (as
+are most of the scrub-haunting animals) with ticks, especially about the
+head: but it was not much more than half the size of an enormous male
+which we subsequently found. Unluckily, half our pack were then wasting
+their energies on a big boar, which, after trotting close up to where
+the writer stood, turned back with a valedictory grunt and disappeared.
+The rest of the pack had meanwhile driven the lynx to the outside of the
+thicket, where we had already viewed him and regarded his fate as
+sealed; when, with sudden fury, the big cat turned on his foes, and
+scattering the _podencos_ with some tremendous fore-arm blows, made good
+his escape to the fastnesses of the Algaida de la Pez.
+
+[Illustration: SPANISH LYNX.]
+
+Some years afterwards the writer killed a magnificent male lynx, one of
+the largest and most beautifully marked we have ever seen, at this
+_mancha_--probably the same beast.
+
+These scrub-clad plains abounded with tall grey foxes (_Vulpes
+melanogaster_) and mongoose (_Herpestes widdringtoni_), with genets,
+badgers, and wild-cats, of all of which we shot specimens. Three
+wild-cats we bagged by moonlight, from screens placed to command an open
+glade where rabbits are wont to pursue nocturnal gambols. Waiting in
+ambush beneath the star-strewn heavens, in the silent brilliance of the
+southern night, no sound save the churring of nightjars, or the whistle
+of stone-curlew, broke the stillness: bats and small owls flicker in
+uncertain flight against the dark sky, and across the glade rabbits
+glide like phantoms: presently a larger shadow announces their deadly
+enemy, the _Gato montes_. Two of these wild-cats were males, large and
+powerful brutes, weighing 91/2 and 101/4 lbs. respectively, and tinged with
+warm chestnut colours beneath. The big lynx we could not weigh, being
+beyond the limit of the spring-balance. He probably reached near half a
+hundredweight. But we must return to our flamingoes.
+
+During the month of April, as already mentioned, all efforts to discover
+their breeding-places proved futile. It was clearly too early in the
+season, and the writer now lost nearly a week through a smart attack of
+ague, brought on by constant splashing about in comparatively cold water
+with a fierce sun always beating down on one's head. In May, however, we
+had better luck. Further to the eastward flamingoes had always been most
+numerous, and once or twice we observed signs, early in May, that looked
+like the first rude beginnings of architecture. We have already
+described the archipelago of islets that lay far towards the eastern
+shore, and on which we had found the rare gulls, and such a variety of
+waders and other aquatic birds breeding (p. 93), together with the
+immense numbers of flamingoes that lined the horizon. We must now return
+to those bird-islets, to the scene where we broke off at the end of
+Chapter VII on the afternoon of the 9th of May.
+
+[Illustration: A TOILET IN THE WILDERNESS.]
+
+As there stated, the immense aggregations of flamingoes in those middle
+marismas, surrounded the horizon in an almost unbroken line. But, on
+examining the different herds narrowly with the binocular, there was an
+obvious dissimilarity in the appearance of certain groups. One or two in
+particular seemed so much denser than the others: the narrow white line
+appeared at least three times as thick, and in the centre looked as if
+the birds were literally piled upon each other. Felipe suggested that
+these birds must be at their _pajerera_, or breeding-place, and after a
+long wet ride we found this was so. The water was very deep, the bottom
+clinging mud: at intervals, for a hundred yards or so, the laboured
+plunging of the mule was exchanged for an easier, gliding motion--he was
+swimming. The change was a welcome relief to man and beast: the
+sensation of sitting a swimming animal is not unpleasant, but it will
+give some idea of the labours undergone in these aquatic rides in the
+marismas in May, 1883, if we add that a fine mule, a powerful beast
+worth L60, succumbed to the effects of the fortnight's work.
+
+On a nearer approach, the cause of the peculiar appearance of the herd
+from a distance became clearly discernible. Many of the birds were
+sitting down on a low mud-island. Some were standing upon it: and others
+again were standing in the water. Thus the different 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.
+These nests had little or no height above the flat surface of mud--some
+were raised an inch or two, a few might be five or six inches in height;
+but the majority were merely circular bulwarks of mud barely raised
+above the general level, and having the impression of the bird's legs
+distinctly marked upon them. The general aspect of the plateau was not
+unlike a large table covered with plates. In the centre was a deep hole
+full of muddy water, which, from the gouged appearance of its sides,
+appeared to be used as a reservoir for nest-making materials.
+
+Scattered all round this main colony were numerous single nests, rising
+out of the water and evidently built up from the bottom. Here and there
+two or three of these were joined together--"semi-detached," so to
+speak: these separate nests stood six or eight inches above water-level,
+and as the depth was rather over a foot, the total height of the nests
+would be some two feet or thereabouts, and their width across the hollow
+top some fifteen inches. None of these nests as yet contained any eggs,
+and though I returned to the _pajarera_ on the latest day I was in its
+neighbourhood (May 11th) they still remained empty. On both occasions
+many hundreds of flamingoes were sitting on the nests, and on the 11th
+we had a good view of them at close quarters. Linked arm-in-arm with
+Felipe, and crouching low on the water to look as little human as
+possible, we approached within some seventy yards before their sentries
+showed signs of alarm: and at that distance, with the glass, observed
+the sitting birds as distinctly as one need wish. The long red legs
+doubled under their bodies, the knees projecting as far as, or beyond
+the tail, and their graceful necks neatly curled away among their
+back-feathers like a sitting swan, with the heads resting on their
+breasts--all these points were unmistakable. Indeed, as regards the
+disposition of their legs, it is hardly necessary to point out that in
+the great majority of cases (the nests being hardly raised above the
+level of the mud) no other position was possible--to sit _astride_ on a
+_flat_ surface is out of the question.
+
+[Illustration: FLAMINGOES AND NESTS.]
+
+Still none of the crowded nests contained a single egg. How strange it
+is that the flamingo, a bird which never seems happy unless half-way up
+to his knees in water, should so long delay the period of incubation:
+for, long before eggs could be laid and hatched in these nests and the
+young reared, the full summer-heats of June and July would have set in,
+the water would have entirely disappeared, and the flamingoes would be
+left stranded in the midst of a scorching desert of dry, sun-baked mud.
+
+Being unable myself to return to the marisma, I sent Felipe back there
+on the 26th of May, when he obtained eggs--long, white and chalky, some
+specimens extremely rough. Two is the number laid in each nest. In 1872
+the writer obtained eggs taken on May 24th, which is therefore,
+probably, about the average date of laying. Owing to the late period at
+which incubation takes place, we have not had an opportunity of
+examining the young flamingoes when newly-hatched, or of endeavouring to
+solve the biological problems which appear to cluster round their
+adolescent anatomy. In June and July, 1872, the writer spent some time
+in the marisma, but unfortunately was not aware, at that time, of the
+interest attaching to these points.
+
+According to native accounts, very few young flamingoes are ever reared
+in Spain. Though in wet seasons eggs are laid in thousands (they are
+sold by boatloads in the neighbouring villages), yet few, if any, of the
+young Spanish flamingoes reach maturity--possibly by reason of their
+lateness in nesting, and the rapid changes in the state of the water in
+the marisma.
+
+In the spring of 1891, after an exceptionally severe winter in Spain,
+and with comparatively little water in the marisma, flamingoes were
+remarkably scarce, and we believe that none bred in Andalucia that year.
+
+Since the author's description of the nesting habits of the flamingo
+first appeared in the _Ibis_ (January, 1884), its accuracy has been
+corroborated by independent observations made on the West Indian island
+of Abaco by His Excellency (now Sir) H. H. Blake, when Governor of the
+Bahamas. The value of the corroboration is enhanced by the fact that the
+above-named gentleman was unaware at the time he wrote that the
+long-vexed question had already, three years previously, been solved:
+and his graphic description in the _Nineteenth Century_ for December,
+1887, is, as regards facts, almost identical with the present writer's
+account of a similar scene narrated in the _Ibis_ for January, 1884.
+
+[Illustration: Plate XVIII.
+
+FLAMINGOES ON THEIR NESTS.
+
+Page 112.]
+
+One other point before we leave the flamingo and its haunts. We have
+seen it stated that the brilliant colours of the flamingo do but reflect
+the brilliancy of its environment--that these bright colours have been
+acquired through the aesthetic tastes of the bird and by "selective
+preference"; then, proceeding to enlarge on a "fascinating theory," its
+expounder goes on from particular to general, and to demonstrate that
+this Darwinian principle is generally operative in ornithic coloration.
+Whether birds in general have or have not aesthetic tastes in the matter
+of coloration or ornament, we are not prepared to say: but to our less
+imaginative minds it is a question whether there exists in nature a
+shred of real evidence in support of such a hypothesis. The flamingo
+truly has a brilliant plumage, but _never_ a brilliant environment. No
+one who has been intimately acquainted with these birds in their haunts
+could have conceived such a sentiment; for anything less brilliant than
+the bleak and tawny monotony which characterizes the chosen homes of the
+flamingo it would be impossible to imagine. The flamingo itself, indeed,
+is the one solitary speck of pure bright colour amidst the broad leagues
+of mud and muddy water which it so conspicuously ornaments. Other birds
+are there, it is true, but to them the same remark applies. They, also,
+are as bright, pure and conspicuously different from their environment
+as are the flamingoes. What more exquisite examples of bright, spotless
+beauty amidst strongly contrasted surroundings than the stilts and
+avocets, the lovely southern herons, egrets and spoonbills, the gulls
+and marsh-terns? These are but a handful of examples fatal to such a
+theory, and they could easily be multiplied indefinitely.
+
+That many brilliant bird-forms affect brilliant surroundings, that the
+fauna of the cold and colourless north in general lacks the gorgeous
+hues of certain denizens of the tropics, or, again, that many creatures
+possess hues assimilated to the general tone of their destined
+haunts--all these are _facts_ which we readily recognize. But are such
+facts much more than coincidences? Or is it wise to deduce any binding
+rules or axiom therefrom? As regards protective assimilation in colour,
+that is quite a different thing: its advantages are self-evident, and
+its application more or less universal throughout the animal-world, but
+it is hardly to the point. Protective coloration we recognize and
+understand--it is an every-day phenomenon--but aesthetic tastes in colour
+we utterly reject.
+
+The composition of the human mind is undoubtedly speculative: and to
+those of deep thought, as distinguished from others the bent of whose
+energies tends rather towards action, the temptation to theorize--to
+venture on the dangerous regions of inference and deduction--appears
+irresistible. The contemplative thinker formulates theories the apparent
+beauty of which fascinate his imagination. Collateral evidence which
+seems to substantiate, is, in general, not difficult to find--that of a
+negative or prejudicial character is not sought. Then with a mind
+unconsciously biassed in favour of a preconceived idea, it may happen
+that probabilities are mistaken for facts, evidence for proof: and thus
+a new hypothesis is duly launched, based on ten, fifty, or a hundred
+adduced circumstances, the whole of which may be merely coincidences,
+and exceptions to the rule if applied to the millions of unadduced
+cases, and perhaps, even in relation to the particular examples cited,
+of no direct bearing in the sense in which it is sought to apply them.
+
+As an example of the class of theories alluded to, we have read that the
+colours of the sea-gull tribe are dark above and light below in order,
+on the one hand, that they may escape the searching scrutiny of the
+eagle soaring above, and, on the other, avoid alarming their finny prey
+beneath. If there was anything in this idea, it would, at least, be a
+hard case for those sea-birds not so coloured, and it should be added
+that of the birds which are so coloured several species take three or
+four years to attain adult dress. How do they survive those earlier
+years? But a very slight acquaintance with the subjects in life shows
+that there is actually nothing in it. Lying in one's gunning-punt, the
+whitest-breasted gulls, as viewed from below against the lightest of
+cloud backgrounds, are seen as clearly as if the bird's colour was
+actually black. Every detail of form and movement is clearly
+distinguishable--the clean-cut wings and tail, legs pressed close up
+under the latter, the pointed head turning from side to side as it
+searches the waters. Its colour makes no difference, and is no factor at
+all. Then from high above, from the heights of a sea-cliff, what man of
+even moderate vision cannot distinguish with equal ease the movements of
+the black-backed gull from those of the pale herring-gull and paler
+tern? And both eagles and surface-swimming fish are infinitely keener of
+vision than the sharpest-eyed of our kind.
+
+These remarks are penned from no love of argument, nor inspired by
+invidious motive, but simply with a view to get at _facts_ and thereby
+advance the interests of science: that is, of true knowledge.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+BRIGANDAGE IN SPAIN.
+
+SKETCHES OF TWO ROBBER-TYPES.
+
+
+I.--VIZCO EL BORJE.
+
+The existence of the brigand, it would appear, is desirable in order to
+cast a glamour of heroism over the adventures of travellers in foreign
+lands. Many Peninsular tourists mention encounters with "brigands," and
+according to some books on Spanish travel, their authors were frequently
+experiencing hair-breadth escapes from these gentry, who were, of
+course, bristling as to their persons with deadly weapons--as is, in
+fact, nearly every harmless peasant or goatherd one may meet in the
+wilds. The tendency to overcolour is, perhaps, natural to imaginative
+writers; but it is a mistake to rush to the other extreme, and to deny
+_in toto_ the survival of this fraternity in modern Spain.
+
+In his "Gatherings from Spain"--one of the best books ever written--Ford
+draws a picture of Spanish brigandage, actual and imaginary, and
+diagnoses the whole status of these "men of the road," as it existed in
+his day, with a knowledge and terseness that cannot be excelled. And
+although Ford wrote fifty years ago, yet his remarks stand substantially
+correct at the present day; the only change of importance being that
+measure of reclamation which half a century of equal laws has succeeded
+in effecting in the prowling _gitano_ or gypsy, in Ford's day a lawless
+pariah, the curse of rural Spain.
+
+Though nowadays the traveller may, and probably would, traverse Iberia
+in every direction without personal molestation, yet the race of Jose
+Maria, the Jack Sheppard of the Peninsula, whose safe-conduct was more
+effective than that of his king, is not extinct, though, like other
+rapacious animals, his home is now confined to mountain-fastnesses,
+whence he only emerges to seize by a sudden coup some opportunity for
+plunder, of which his satellites have sent him notice--for, by profuse
+generosity and terrorism, the _ladron en grande_ holds the sparse
+hill-peasantry in a bond of allegiance.
+
+Putting on one side the conventional and highly-coloured notions that
+pass current, the condition of _bandolerismo_, or brigandage, at the
+present day may be thus defined:--There is first the noble outlaw, or
+"professional" robber-king, a rare and meteoric personage, of whom anon;
+and there are the sneaking petty pilferers who rob as opportunity
+serves, or as their wild environment almost suggests. These voltigeurs
+of the road are normally peasants, goatherds, or mere good-for-nothings;
+content to confine their energies to minor larcenies, and whose poor
+ambitions soar no higher than relieving solitary wayfarers of their
+watches, loose cash, &c., as happened to a friend of ours while
+traversing the sierras between Paterna and Alcala. Though a fight is no
+part of these footpads' tactics, yet in favourable situations a single
+hidden scoundrel may command the way, and dominate a dozen travellers
+who know not whether that sudden summons to halt and lay down their
+loose goods and chattels proceeds from one or from a score of
+assailants, concealed amid the tumbled rocks and dense underwood of a
+narrow pass. And, after all, it is probably wiser, if caught in such a
+trap, to lose a few dollars than to risk life.
+
+Very different is the character of the noble robber-chief, or _ladron en
+grande_. In this man who leads the lawless, and, by force of predominant
+will, controls and commands a cut-throat gang, but ill-disposed either
+to subjection or discipline, there are qualities that, rightly directed,
+might attain any object sought--qualities of moral force, courage, and
+an iron will, that one cannot but admire. Men of this calibre appear but
+at intervals; for "nature is chary in the production of such specimens
+of dangerous grandeur." Such a man was Jose Maria; and of late years a
+fine example has been afforded by the notorious outlaw, Vizco el Borje,
+of whose methods of procedure the following incident, as narrated to us
+almost in the words of its principal victim, will serve to give a good
+idea.
+
+At the little mountain-village of Zahrita it is the custom to celebrate
+the annual festival of its patron saint, San Antonio, by an amateur
+bull-fight, a performance at which the smartest of the young bloods of
+the village take the principal parts. For many years it had been the
+habit of the owner of the neighbouring pasturages to provide the bulls
+for this annual function free of charge; and on the eve of the festival
+the son of the well-to-do proprietor, Don Pedro de M----, was, with his
+steward Diego, and a herdsman, engaged in selecting some of the most
+fiery and active young bulls. Both were dismounted, and, rein in hand,
+were walking round the herd, when they were suddenly arrested by a sharp
+summons to halt and surrender. Then, turning round, they found
+themselves face to face with the muzzles of three levelled guns bearing
+upon them--the three mounted men having stolen up behind and taken them
+unawares. Resistance under such circumstances was out of the question.
+The guns of both Pedro and his servant hung in their saddle-slings, but
+any movement in that direction would have brought instant fire upon
+them. Before they had well recovered from their surprise, one of the
+brigands coolly dismounted and took possession of both their guns, the
+other pair meanwhile each keeping his man well "covered." The unlucky
+Pedro was now completely at the mercy of his aggressors. At the order of
+one of these, evidently the chief, the prisoners remounted and followed
+his lead, the others closing in behind, and precluding all chance of
+escape, except at the risk--or certainty--of being shot down. The guide
+took a line leading towards the higher sierra, and avoiding the
+frequented track. Arrived in a densely close thicket, the cavalcade
+halted, and one man was sent forward to reconnoitre. A shrill whistle
+was heard in that direction, and presently nine other horsemen rode in.
+The captives were now ordered to dismount, their eyes were closely
+bandaged, and they were informed that their lives depended on implicit
+obedience to orders, and that it was better for them to see nothing and
+to hear less--the latter an almost unnecessary injunction, since hardly
+a word had been spoken. For hours the captives were led forward, their
+horses stumbling along a rocky ascent, and they presently knew, by the
+absence of brushwood, that they had reached the higher regions of the
+sierra; then a halt was ordered, they were assisted to dismount, and led
+on foot along a passage whose echoing sounds told them it was
+subterranean. Here, in an extensive cavern, probably the long-abandoned
+workings of a Roman mine, his eyes were unbandaged, and Pedro found
+himself in the presence of his three original assailants. The only
+furniture in the cave consisted of a few empty boxes; on one of these
+glimmered a flickering wick in a saucerful of oil. The robber-leader
+drew up another box for a seat, and producing writing materials, ordered
+Pedro to write to his dictation as follows:--"My dear father, I am in
+the power of sequestradores, who make good plans and bind fast. It is
+madness to put Government on their track--they will escape and you will
+lose your son. Your secrecy and money at once free me. You can send the
+silver by Diego, our steward, who bears you this. Let him appear on the
+mountain-road between Grazalema and El Bosque, riding a white donkey,
+and bringing ten thousand dollars." ... At this point the prisoner, who
+had so far written as directed, stopped short, and point-blank refused
+to demand such a sum--declaring he would not take from his brothers any
+part of their patrimony, and that the only sum he would accept of his
+father was such as might fall to him as one of a numerous family. The
+fairness of this, and the undaunted attitude of Pedro, seemed to please
+the brigand, who declared, with a shake of his hand, that whatever
+bargain was struck should be honourably adhered to. The sum of 6,000
+dollars was then inserted, the missive signed and sealed, and Diego, who
+had remained blindfold, was led to a point in the sierra which was
+familiar to him, his eyes unbandaged, and told to make the best of his
+way with the note to Jerez. This, as the dawn was just breaking, he had
+no difficulty in doing before night.
+
+After Diego's departure, the chief invited his captive to sup with him
+and join in a _borracha_ (skin) of wine, under whose influence the
+bandit became more genial, and related certain facts concerning his
+personal history. He had formerly been an officer of _carabineros_, but
+being dismissed for some, as he held, trifling fault, all means of
+subsistence were denied to him, and losing caste step by step, there had
+gradually developed in his breast an intense hatred of all social
+arrangements, which had finally led to his present state of outlawry.
+First he had been a smuggler, but, as the Spanish proverb runs,--
+
+ "De contrabandista a ladron
+ No hay mas que un escalon."
+ (From a smuggler to a thief
+ The step is short, the time is brief!)
+
+Little by little his revolt against law and order led him into further
+excesses and more outrageous acts of crime. The daring courage and
+character of the man had attracted rogues of lesser calibre to his side,
+and now Vizco el Borje was the acknowledged chief of the party of
+plunder and anarchy.
+
+The following night another party of robbers arrived: the captive was
+again blindfolded, and the dark journey resumed. For three days and
+nights the same course was pursued--the brigands each morning at dawn
+going to ground in a fresh earth. An amusing incident occurred during
+one of these nocturnal marches. The cavalcade was suddenly brought to a
+stop, and the words passed down the line--_Civiles, civiles!_ The
+prisoner now hoped that his deliverance was at hand; the chief ordered
+his band to close up their ranks--the prisoner being removed some yards
+to the rear--and to prepare to fire. During the panic, and amidst the
+clicking of locks, Pedro took the opportunity of slightly raising his
+bandage. The robbers were halted on a narrow ledge of the
+mountain-side--a sheer rock-wall behind and a precipitous slope below
+making any lateral movement impossible. A direct retreat was of course
+available, but this did not commend itself to the chief, who, under the
+shadow of the cliff, had the approaching horsemen at a disadvantage. The
+clatter of hoofs sounded nearer and nearer, and as the first beast
+appeared on the ledge it was evident there had been a false alarm. The
+heavily-laden transport of a gang of smugglers advanced along the narrow
+track, and as they slowly filed past the robber-troop, the only words
+that passed were _Buenas noches!_ and the reply _Vayan ustedes con
+Dios!_ Good night, and God go with you!
+
+[Illustration: CIVIL GUARDS.]
+
+On the second night Vizco had left his captive, saying he had other
+work in hand: but, a day or two afterwards, Pedro received a message
+from him, stating that, owing to the vigilance of the authorities, no
+opportunity had offered itself of meeting Diego and the white donkey at
+the appointed tryst: and instructing him again to write to his father,
+with fresh directions to forward half the stipulated ransom to
+Grazalema, where means would be found of receiving it--the other half to
+be borne by the white donkey to a freshly-appointed spot among the
+hills. Overjoyed at receiving this second assurance that his son still
+lived, the father, though an old man, set off at once, with six hundred
+pounds in cash, on the long ride to Grazalema. Then for two days he hung
+about its precipitous streets in an agony of suspense almost
+unendurable. No one spoke to him till the third morning, when a man
+leading a pony laden with the rough woollen cloth which is made in
+Grazalema and forms the staple industry of the little town, accosted him
+as he passed with the words--"Follow me." The pony was stopped before a
+small shop wherein some of the same woollen cloths were exposed for
+sale: and passing through into the small back-room, the old father found
+a man seated whose appearance was that of a cloth-pedlar--men who with
+their sturdy ponies carry on a trade or barter of these coarse woollens
+throughout the sierras.
+
+After the customary Andalucian exchange of civilities, the pedlar,
+looking the old man straight in the face, said, "Have you the three
+thousand dollars? You know this?" and he produced Pedro's pencil-case.
+The money was at the posada, and soon the old man, ripping up the
+stuffing of his saddle, returned to the pedlar's shop with that sum. The
+money was counted out, and Vizco el Borje, springing on top of that
+honest-looking freight of coarse cloth, was soon clear of the streets of
+Grazalema and steering his pony to some well-known mountain-lair.
+
+While these events were occurring in Grazalema poor Diego was wearying
+of his long-delayed assignation. For three days he and his white donkey
+hung about the remote spot which had been indicated: and at last, on the
+third evening, as he was entering the village of Benocaz, a goatherd
+said, "At the well beyond the village you will find a woman in black who
+will direct you to those you seek." He passed along the line of white
+_casitas_ which form the only street of Benocaz, and by the old Moorish
+draw-well beyond sat a woman in black. As directed by the goatherd, he
+addressed her, "_Que hora es?_" and the reply, "_Las doce_," was what he
+had been told to expect. The woman at once struck over into the hills
+till she reached a well-worn track and directed Diego to follow this
+till accosted by a shepherd. He did as he was bidden and after two
+hours' rough riding over the dark hill, heard the same words, "_Que hora
+es?_" "_Las doce_," he replied, and was piloted by this new guide to a
+cavern, in which, to his intense joy, he found his young master, alive
+and well. The money was at once paid over, and though at first the
+brigands refused to release their captive on the ground that only half
+the stipulated sum had been brought, yet suspense did not last long, for
+during the night a messenger from Vizco arrived, announcing the due
+payment of the other half, and instructing the robbers at once to set
+free their prisoners, and to place them on a road which they would know.
+And on the following evening, after a captivity of fifteen days, Pedro
+rode once more into the city of Jerez.
+
+Since the above was written Vizco el Borje has died--died as a
+robber-chieftain should die, by the rifle-ball. Several times, towards
+the end, his life was only saved by his magnificent pluck and resource.
+But at last, while campaigning in the Sierra Morena, not far from
+Cordova, his whereabouts became known to the authorities--presumably
+through treachery--and after a series of desperate deeds of bravery, the
+bold brigand was finally surrounded, all retreat cut off, and Vizco el
+Borje fell with five bullets in his body.
+
+We now give a brief history of a robber of the other type--and,
+incidentally, of the vagaries of judicial justice in Spain.
+
+
+II.--AGUA-DULCE.
+
+Agua-Dulce lacked the character of the noble brigand; but was so
+successful in a long course of perpetual petty robberies, and in
+invariably escaping justice when caught, that he had become a terror to
+the neighbourhood of Jerez. To the simple folk whose duties took them to
+the sequestered farmsteads or along the lonely _veredas_, or
+bridle-tracks, leading towards the sierras, there appeared to be
+something "uncanny" about this _raterillo_. Agua-Dulce was one of those
+men who acquire much fame without having done anything to justify it. As
+a robber, he was of the meaner sort, fertile in resource in planning his
+small crimes, and relying more on effrontery than bravery to avoid
+capture. His victims were almost exclusively poor charcoal-burners, or
+_arrieros_ returning from the town with their hard-earned gains--three
+or four to twenty dollars, received for weeks of toilsome labour--the
+very class whom Vizco el Borje subsidized, and by judicious generosity
+made subservient to his more exalted schemes. Thus the very men who,
+_nolens volens_, became allies and satellites of Vizco, were
+Agua-Dulce's habitual victims and bitterest enemies.
+
+It is from the lips of Antonio Sanchez, formerly of the Municipal Guard
+of Jerez de la Frontera, and now retired on pension, that we have the
+following account of the career and death of the miscreant known as
+Agua-Dulce. Sanchez was, moreover, the man who slew him.
+
+Agua-Dulce was suspected of having various accomplices: his favourite
+defence was to prove an _alibi_, and his success in throwing the
+authorities off the scent by this means pointed to combinations which
+were not visible on the surface. At the hour when the particular robbery
+with which he was charged had been committed, Agua-Dulce showed that he
+was in the town and had saluted this or that functionary. And these
+latter were always ready to support his defence as witnesses. Among
+other unacknowledged alliances, Agua-Dulce was reputed to enjoy the
+protection of a certain magistrate of influential position in Seville,
+who was stated to be on terms of intimacy with his sister, a woman of
+remarkable beauty.
+
+The following occurrence, which refers to, perhaps, the only robbery of
+magnitude carried out by Agua-Dulce, was cited by Sanchez in proof of
+the above report. A sum representing nearly six hundred pounds, all,
+curiously enough, in the smallest gold coin, had been taken from Don
+Juan Malvido of Jerez. A few days later, Agua-Dulce was discovered in a
+wine-shop of the Calle Cruz Vieja, dividing with two other men a large
+quantity of these same small gold coins. He was arrested and imprisoned.
+The judge at that time was one Alvarez, who was, however, absent from
+his post on account of illness; the interim authority being Don Juan
+Cerron, a man of upright and intrepid principle, who believed that now
+sufficient evidence was forthcoming to bring home to the villain his
+crime, and secure at length the condign punishment he had so often
+deserved. When the prisoner was asked to explain how he became possessed
+of so much small gold, he replied it was the proceeds of a certain
+business he had just effected in Seville. For the purpose of
+ascertaining the truth of this, the judge commissioned an inquiry (_puso
+un exhorto_) to be made at Seville. The reply was a demand for the
+prisoner's presence in that city--doubtless to learn from Agua-Dulce's
+lips how the _exhorto_ could be answered favourably to his cause!
+
+The Jerez deputy-judge roundly refused to allow this. Then it was that
+the invalid judge was ordered--no matter what the state of his
+health--to return at once to his post. Though seriously ill, he complied
+with the request, and next morning from the Magisterial chair ruled that
+Agua-Dulce should be sent to Seville. A few days later the reply to the
+_exhorto_ arrived--in terms entirely favourable to the prisoner, and no
+doubt inspired by him. No charge could now be sustained. The papers were
+sealed up, and Agua-Dulce once more set at liberty, the small gold
+coins, which every one was morally certain had proceeded from the
+Malvido robbery, being returned to him.
+
+For some years after this Agua-Dulce continued his course of petty
+robbery and outrage without especial incident, but with increasing
+audacity and immunity. Of a lady named Varela he had demanded three
+thousand dollars under threat of destroying the valuable stock of mares
+upon her farm of Vicos. Of Don Antonio Diaz, of Paterna, he had
+requisitioned a thousand dollars under similar terms: and a large number
+of donkeys belonging to Don Jose Calero, also of Paterna, who had
+refused his extortions, were found with their throats cut. Lastly, from
+a farm-steward at Romanina he had taken a small sum of money, his gun,
+and cartridge-belt. The authorities in this last (minor) case had clear
+evidence against Agua-Dulce and were keenly on his track.
+
+The crimes of the miscreant (all these having occurred within a few
+days) were thus assuming alarming proportions, and two amongst the
+Municipal Guard of Jerez swore they would put an end to him. On the 23rd
+of May these two, Antonio Sanchez and Jose Salado, were returning
+towards Jerez after several days of fruitless search, when, passing the
+ford of the Alamillo (a preserve belonging to the Duke of San Lorenzo),
+a woman informed them that Agua-Dulce had been at work only an hour or
+two before, and had taken all he possessed from a poor _carbonero_. This
+decided them to remain in the neighbourhood, and shortly afterwards,
+while riding through the coverts of El Espinar, they observed two men,
+armed with guns, running between the trees.
+
+The mounted guards gave chase, overhauled the men, and demanded their
+surrender. The reply was prompt--a couple of shots: meeting the
+simultaneous fire of the guards. No sooner, however, had the latter
+fired than Salado fell dead from his horse, for Agua-Dulce's bullet had
+gone true. Sanchez leaped from his saddle and, seeing that one robber
+was done for, went for the other, whom he now recognized as Agua-Dulce.
+A hand-to-hand struggle was imminent, but the bandit availed himself of
+the thick lentisk-covert, and contrived to put some distance between
+himself and his assailant. Both knew it was a duel to the death. Second
+shots were exchanged, and this time Agua-Dulce was wounded. Sanchez
+again called on him to surrender, but again the reply was a bullet,
+which narrowly missed a vital spot. A second ball now struck the robber
+in the side, bringing him to the ground. While Sanchez reloaded, the
+wounded desperado managed again to rise to his feet and drew a pistol
+from his belt: but he was just not quick enough, and ere he could aim, a
+bullet from Sanchez's barrel had perforated him from chest to shoulder.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+THE SPANISH IBEX.
+
+NOTES ON ITS NATURAL HISTORY, HAUNTS, HABITS, AND DISTRIBUTION.
+
+
+The ibex, or wild goat, has a wide range throughout the Alpine regions
+of the old world: and wherever it is found, from Spain to the Himalayas,
+takes a chief place amongst the beasts of chase. Few pictures, indeed,
+does the animal-world present more perfect than an old ibex-ram,[27]
+with his thick-set, game-like form, his hoary coat and flowing beard,
+and those massive, widely-curving horns--no trophy more dear to the
+big-game sportsman, and few so hard to secure.
+
+The Spanish Peninsula can boast an ibex peculiar to itself, a noble
+beast not to be found elsewhere than on Iberian soil. Till recently, we
+shared the opinion that two forms of ibex existed in Spain--the Pyrenean
+type, and the slightly divergent _Capra hispanica_ of the southern
+sierras: but further experience and a comparison of heads from various
+points, have convinced us that (except in the matter of size) there is
+no material difference between the Spanish races of wild goats. No
+difference, that is, greater than might naturally be looked for as
+between isolated colonies, separated one from another during
+centuries--for the ibex of Nevada or of Gredos is as effectually divided
+from his kind in the Pyrenees as though wide oceans rolled between.
+
+Differences in habits, haunts, and food are well known to produce,
+during extended periods, corresponding differences in form: but so far
+as we are able to judge, the only material variation between the
+so-called _Capra pyrenaica_, of the north, and the _C. hispanica_, of
+Southern and Central Spain, is that of size. The Pyrenean ibex is a
+larger animal: but the horns are almost, though not quite, identical in
+form with those from the Sierra Nevada[28]: while both differ most
+materially from the well-known horns of the typical ibex, the _Capra
+ibex_ of the Alps and of Central Europe.
+
+These differences will be seen at a glance in the photographs and rough
+sketches we annex. Briefly, the horns of the true ibex bend regularly
+backwards and downwards in a more or less uniform, scimitar-like curve:
+while those of _all_ Spanish goats, after first diverging laterally,
+become re-curved both inwards and finally upwards. That is, while in the
+one case the horns present a simple circular bend, in the Spanish ibex
+they form almost a spiral.[29]
+
+A minor point of difference consists in the form of the annular notches,
+or rings. These in the Alpine ibex run more or less straight around,
+encircling the horn in front roughly like steps in a ladder: while in
+_Capra hispanica_ they run obliquely in a spiral ascent. These
+annulations indicate the age of the animal--one notch to each year: but
+the count must stop where the spiral ends. Beyond that, there is always
+the lightly-grooved tip which does not alter.
+
+The horns of the female ibex are weak and comparatively short--only some
+six or seven inches in length, not unlike those of the chamois, but not
+so sharply hooked. These do _not_ grow annually: hence there is not the
+ready index of age afforded by the horns of the rams. It is, perhaps,
+unnecessary to add that the horns of goats are _permanent_, and not cast
+yearly as is the case with deer.
+
+The following are the maximum dimensions of the heads of male ibex,
+measured by the authors--all from the central and south-Spanish sierras.
+
+ Age. Length. Sweep. Circumference.
+ 1. Five years 18-1/2 in. 11-1/2 in. 9-3/8 in.
+ 2. Eight " 27-1/2 " 23 " 9 "
+ 3. " " 28-1/4 " 19 " 8-3/4 "
+ 4. " " 29 " 18-3/4 " 9 "
+ 5. Aged 29 " 22-1/2 " 9-1/4 "
+ 6. " 29-1/4 " 23-1/4 " 9-1/2 "
+
+Through the kindness of the late Sir Victor Brooke, we are also enabled
+to give the following measurements of his three best Pyrenean ibex
+heads.
+
+ Length. Sweep. Circumference.
+ A. 26 in. 21 in. 10 in.
+ B. 29 " 23 " 10 "
+ C. 31 " 26-1/2 " 8-3/4 "
+
+Sir Victor Brooke wrote:--"A. This was a very grand _old_ ibex: but the
+points were broken and his horns rubbed smooth with age. The Pyrenean
+ibex are much larger beasts than those from the southern sierras."
+
+The natural home of the ibex may be defined as exclusively amidst the
+summits of the wildest rock-mountains and most alpine spots upon
+earth--subject, however, to such, apparently accidental, variations of
+this general rule, as will be found hereinafter mentioned. Here their
+hollowed hoofs and marvellous agility enable them to traverse, at full
+speed, ice, crag, and precipice that seem absolutely impassable, and to
+mount rock-walls where no visible foothold exists, throwing into
+heart-breaking insignificance our puny efforts to encompass them. If a
+man's heart swells with the pride of strength--if he flatters himself
+that he is master of all the beasts of the field and of the arts of
+field-craft, let him try a campaign with the wild-goats--verily there is
+no sublunar undertaking better calculated to take the conceit out of
+him. Mere figures give but a poor idea: to say that the favourite haunts
+of ibex lie at altitudes of 8,000 to 10,000 feet, is hardly any real
+criterion of the difficulties and hardships of their pursuit. Suffice
+it here to say that the mere ascent to such heights occupies well-nigh a
+whole day: even when encamped among the fringe of the snow, the
+climb-out to the summits may still require two or three hours of the
+hardest work.
+
+[Illustration: SPANISH IBEX, OLD RAM--SIERRA DE GREDOS.]
+
+Ibex are found throughout the highlands of the Peninsula, from Pyrenees
+to Mediterranean, but not continuously--their haunts being distinct and
+separated by intervening plains. They inhabit all the Pyrenees[30] and
+are comparatively numerous on the hills round Andorra (Pyrenees
+orientales). In the south their great strongholds are the Sierras Nevada
+and Morena, where herds of twenty, thirty, or even fifty, may sometimes
+be seen together. Besides these main southern haunts, the ibex have
+several detached colonies in the hill-ranges of Andalucia and
+Estremadura. Along all the elevated cordillera of Central Spain, the
+ibex find a congenial home: but their chosen stronghold is in the
+extensive Sierra de Gredos. This elevated point is the apex of the long
+Carpeto-Vetonico range which extends from Moncayo through the Castiles
+and Estremadura, forming the watershed of the Tagus and Douro; it
+separates the two Castiles, and passing the frontier of Portugal, is
+there known as the Serra da Estrella, which (with the Cintra hills)
+extends to the Atlantic seaboard. Along all this extensive cordillera
+there is no more favourite ground for the ibex than its highest peak,
+the Plaza de Almanzor, 10,000 feet above sea-level. During the winter
+and early spring the wild goats have a predilection for the southern
+slopes towards Estremadura: but in summer and autumn large herds, often
+numbering dozens, and especially the noble rams, make their home in the
+environs of Almanzor and the lonely alpine lakes of Gredos.
+
+Our personal experiences of the Spanish ibex are limited to four
+points--two in the southern sierras, and two on the central cordillera:
+in three of which the habits of the goats exhibited some very remarkable
+variations. These, however, we describe more particularly when treating
+of ibex-shooting in other chapters.
+
+[Illustration: SPANISH IBEX, OLD RAM, SIERRA NEVADA. (Front view)]
+
+The ibex is strictly nocturnal in its habits, passing the day at rest,
+either on the snow-fields or amidst the most rugged and inaccessible
+ground within its reach, and only descending to lower levels to feed
+after sun-down. This habit never varies. In the more elevated
+cordilleras, where, even in summer, there remain great expanses of snow
+and glacier-ice, the wild goats retire at dawn to the heights, spending
+the day on some bare rock or among the crevices of crags islanded in the
+snow-field, and always guarded from danger of surprise by sentries, who
+hold watch and ward from some commanding point. Here, except sometimes
+during the hottest days of July and August, they are all but
+inaccessible--it is impossible to "turn their flank," for they have,
+behind them, vast breadths of snow impassable to man: while the
+vigilance of their sentries simply mocks the stalker--even if their
+position is not physically inexpugnable. The only systematic method
+employed by native hunters, at such times, is the unsatisfactory one of
+waiting, at dusk, to "cut them out" in the passes by which they are
+accustomed to descend to their feeding-grounds--a bitterly cold and most
+uncertain undertaking, to say nothing of its danger, for after sun-down
+the soft snow freezes into a solid ice-sheet, cutting off the hunter's
+retreat along the steep slope of the sierra.
+
+The ibex of these higher sierras never descend to the level where pines,
+high brushwood, or indeed any covert can grow. Their home is on the snow
+and rock, and they only descend as far as that zone of moss, heath, and
+stunted alpine vegetation which intervenes between the snow-line and the
+highest levels of conifer or tree-growth. Their food consists of the
+bloom and shoots of various alpine shrubs, grasses and flowers--the
+Spanish gorse, broom, rosemary, and _piorno_, as well as certain
+narcissi, mountain-berries, and the peasants' scant crops of rye-grass.
+For this latter luxury they are tempted to come down rather lower: but
+under no circumstances, not even in winter, are the ibex of Gredos or
+Nevada found in the forests or amongst covert of any kind.
+
+Such, in outline, are the habits of the ibex of the higher sierras. But
+ibex also exist on mountain-ranges of much lesser elevations, and
+_there_ their habits differ widely. Some of these lower hills are
+covered with brushwood to their very crests--one has pines on its
+summit, at 4,800 feet. Here the ibex cannot, of course, disdain the
+shelter of the scrub, and even frequent the forests at much lower
+elevations. We have hunted them in ground that looked far more suitable
+for roe-deer, and have even seen the "rootings" of pig overlapping the
+feeding-grounds of the goats.
+
+[Illustration: SPANISH IBEX. OLD RAM. (Side view.)]
+
+In such situations, the ibex form regular "lairs" amidst the fastnesses
+of broom, gorse and thorny _abolaga_, on the bloom of which they browse
+by night, without having to descend or to shift their quarters at all.
+On these lower hills the ibex owe their safety--and survival--exclusively
+to the rough and intercepted nature of the ground, over-grown for miles
+with forest and matted brushwood; and, in some degree, to their own
+comparatively small numbers.[31]
+
+A third very distinct habitat we have described in detail elsewhere.
+Here, on an isolated mountain, detached from the adjoining sierras, and
+affording neither the refuge of snow-fields nor jungle, the mother-wit
+of a segregated band of ibex managed to discover a sanctuary scarcely
+less secure. As elsewhere described, they simply shut the door on
+pursuit by betaking themselves into the clefts and crannies of a hanging
+rock-wall some three miles long and 2,000 feet high. To these eagle's
+eyries no other terrestrial being could follow, nor human power dislodge
+the astute _monteses_, whose beards, for all we know, were shaking with
+laughter as they gazed down upon their discomfited enemies.
+
+In this case, the ibex may almost be said to have "gone to ground"; for
+they actually sought shelter, when hard pressed, in the caves and
+ravines with which the face of these precipices were serried. This seems
+opposed to all one's ideas of what _ought_ to be the habits of a wild
+goat; but it well illustrates the pre-eminently astute nature of the
+animal.
+
+[Illustration: Plate XIX.
+
+ON THE CRAGS OF ALMANZOR.
+
+Page 137.]
+
+Were it otherwise--were it not for this reasoning sagacity in utilizing
+the natural resources of each locality--in short, adapting their habits
+to the necessities of the case, the existence of these isolated colonies
+of ibex, on limited terrain, would be impossible. Even as it is, their
+survival is, we fear, in some cases, only a question of years, for the
+_tiradores_ of the sierra hunt them in season and out. The _serrano_
+hunts rather for the pot than for sport, and spares neither sex nor age.
+With all his sportsman-like qualities and skill in his craft, our friend
+is not truly a sportsman. He is, we fear, but a butcher at heart; _meat_
+is what he seeks; to him a female is only a less desirable quarry than
+her lord in the ratio of her smaller weight--about one-fourth less. It
+is the same with everything; with partridge, a covey at a shot, as they
+run up in file to the traitor _reclamo_; with bustard, to massacre a
+pair as they stoop to drink at a water-hole in the thirsty summer days;
+with trout, to decimate a river by poisoning the streams, tipping in a
+cart-load of quicklime, or blowing up a pool by dynamite--such are the
+cherished objects of our friend, the Spanish _cazador_; and yet, despite
+it all, we like him, and are never happier than during the hours we
+spend in his company around the camp-fire.
+
+In form and build, the ibex represents the very perfection of combined
+power and action--if physical adaptation counts in the struggle for the
+"survival of the fittest," the wild goat need hardly fear extinction.
+His thickset frame, broad front, and prominent eyes, with well-poised
+neck, clean quarters, and the light muscular legs set well within his
+short round barrel, all bespeak qualities which admirably adapt him to
+the hard, strange life assigned by nature to the wild-goat.
+
+During the summer months, the ibex feast luxuriously on the abundant
+crop of mountain-grasses, flowering shrubs and rush, which at that
+season clothe the Alpine solitudes; and, later, on the various berries
+and wild fruits of the hills. By autumn they are in their highest
+condition--the long black beards of the old rams fully developed, and
+their brown coats long, glossy, and almost uniform in colour. At this
+period the rutting season takes place--in October; and the _machos_
+fight furiously for the assembled harems--rearing on hind legs for a
+charge, the crash of opposing horns resounds afar across the glens and
+corries of the sierra. Even in spring their combative instinct survives;
+we have watched, in April, a pair of veterans sparring at each other for
+an hour together.
+
+The young ibex are born in April, and soon learn to follow their
+dams--graceful little creatures, like brown lambs, easily captured if
+the mother is shot, but not otherwise. One is the usual number, but two
+is not infrequent. It is a curious fact that the kid remains with its
+dam upwards of a year--that is, till after a second family has been
+born. Consequently it is usual, in spring, to see the females in
+trios--the mother, her yearling daughter, called the _chivata_, and the
+new-born kid, or _chivo_. Though, as just stated, there are often two
+young, yet we have never seen more than one _chivata_ with each female
+ibex--possibly it is only the female kids that remain so long with their
+dams. In May the _chivatas_ are conspicuously smaller than the adult
+females, but their horns are nearly as large.
+
+At this season (April-May) the ibex are changing their coats; the males
+have almost entirely lost their flowing beards, and in colour assume a
+hoary, piebald appearance, especially on cheeks and forequarters,
+contrasting with the darker portions above and behind. The muzzle is
+warm cream-colour, and the lower part of the leg (below the knee)
+prettily marked with black and white; on the knee, a callosity, or round
+patch of bare hard skin. The horns of yearling males are larger and
+heavier than those of adult females.
+
+Though it is the custom of the hill-shepherds during summer to drive out
+their herds of goats to pasture on the higher ranges of the sierra,
+where they must sometimes come in contact with their wild congeners, yet
+no inter-breeding takes place; nor can the race of wild ibex be reduced
+to domesticity. The hunters frequently capture the young ibex--it is
+sometimes given as an excuse for killing the dam--yet they rarely
+survive long in captivity, and never mate with the domestic goat. In May
+we could not hear of a single wild kid of the previous year's capture
+that had survived the twelvemonth in any of the hill-villages of Gredos.
+The form of the horns in the domestic goat is essentially different;
+they are much flatter, thinner, and not a quarter as large as those of
+the wild ibex. The latter can hardly have been the progenitor of the
+race of goats now domesticated in Spain.
+
+The smell of a dead ibex is specially strong and unpleasant--an old male
+stinks far worse than a vulture; yet little or no trace of this remains
+after cooking. Their flesh is firm and brown, fairly good eating, but
+without any special flavour or individuality--that is, when subjected to
+the rude cookery of the camp.
+
+[Illustration: OLD OLIVE TREES--NEAR TALAVERA.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+IBEX-SHOOTING IN SPAIN.
+
+
+I.--SIERRA DE GREDOS (OLD CASTILE).
+
+Twenty-six hours on the railway--at first with the comparative luxury of
+a Pullman-car: the last seven crawling across the Castilian plain,
+towards the frowning ridges that look down on Talavera, whereon our Iron
+Duke repulsed nearly twice his numbers of French, and turned the tide of
+war: then thirty odd miles in a diligence, and finally a five-league
+mountain-scramble on mules--this it costs us to reach the home of the
+Castilian ibex.
+
+Night was closing in and sleet descending in driving sheets, when at
+length, round a projecting spur, we sighted our destination. The hamlet
+hung on the steep slope of the sierra, whose snow-clad heights and
+jagged peaks, towering away into cloud-land, gave us a fair forecast of
+the labours in store. As for the village--a more picturesque,
+rumble-tumble maze of quaint, shapeless hovels, all pitched down
+apparently at random, with their odd chimneys, odd balconies and
+projecting gables, all wood-built, it would be hard for fancy to depict,
+or for artist to discover. And the natives--the light-framed, lithe
+mountaineers, clad in the short _majo_ jackets, tight knee-breeches and
+cloth gaiters, with smart sky-blue waist-coats, brass-buttoned, and
+crimson _fajas_: the women enveloped in brilliant _mantas_ of
+grass-green or scarlet, and with short petticoats that displayed rounded
+limbs, bare to the knee--verily we seemed to have fallen upon some
+surviving vestige of Goth or Moor, all unknown to the world, hidden away
+in these recesses of the sierra.
+
+
+[Illustration: Plate XX.
+
+Page 141.
+
+THE HOME OF THE IBEX--A SKETCH IN THE SIERRA DE GREDOS.]
+
+Such things, however, had but a platonic interest for men weary,
+drenched and travel-worn: and a terrible shock remained in store, when,
+upon a low paneless barn, we deciphered, in hieroglyphic symbols, the
+word _posada_. At the moment of our observing the ill-boding sign, a pig
+was in the act of entering the portals.
+
+Nothing, however, remained but to make the best of it. The cold was
+intense, and in the deluge of rain and sleet outside, it was impossible
+to erect our tent, even had a level site existed. We had with us,
+however, on this campaign, a genius, and with magic skill Vicente
+transformed the uncouth den: order replaced chaos: our bedsteads were
+erected, basins, towels, soap, even chairs and a table appeared as by
+legerdemain: while a savoury _olla_ with two brace of quarter-pound
+trout from the burn below, and a stoup of good red wine, stood before
+us.
+
+We soon had the local hunters collected around us, all old
+friends--Magdaleno, the crack shot of the sierra, Claudio, Juanito, and
+little Ramon: but their reports were not encouraging.[32] The snow on
+the heights was still impassable: Almanzor and the Lagunas de Gredos
+were inaccessible, and these regions formed, we knew, the _madre_--the
+true home of the ibex. The system of the _ojeo_, or mountain-drive, was
+only practicable as yet (May) on three or four limited areas of the
+sierra: but there also remained open to us the resource of stalking the
+ibex. Of this sport we will speak later; but we decided at first to
+adopt the plan of _monteria_, or big beats.
+
+The first day's _batida_ embraced a huge natural amphitheatre of rock,
+seven or eight miles in circuit, as roughly depicted opposite. Our men
+had left before dawn to gain the furthest flank, and we followed soon
+after, to climb out to the peaks directly above. At first we ascended on
+little shaggy mules, without saddle, stirrups, or bridle--only a single
+cord to the nose-halter and a padded roller to sit on. The upward route
+was as follows: one day will serve to describe all. On the lower slopes
+(8,000 to 4,000 feet), rough pine forest, gradually opening out, and
+giving place to a zone of brushwood and coarse vegetation: above,
+another zone, of esparto and wiry grass interspersed with patches of a
+peculiar gorse and rosemary scrub, and the _piorno_, a tough green
+shrub, whose bleached limbs closely resemble human skeletons. Here and
+there one could imagine that the rugged slope had been, at no remote
+period, the scene of a bloody battle.[33] Above this level, plant-life
+rapidly grows scarcer and more alpine--the bleaberry and gentian,
+stunted heaths and _piornos_, with beds of purple saxifrage, white and
+violet crocuses, and a yellow narcissus, the two last right up to the
+snow.
+
+The riding here grew worse and worse: the little mules scrambled like
+cats over the naked rocks, but at last even they could no further go,
+and were left, picketed in rock-stalls, on some hanging shelf. Now came
+a terrible scramble on foot--hardly a step but needed to be made good by
+hand-hold also, and then we reached the lower snows. Treacherous ground
+this, here frozen into miniature glaciers, there soft and "rotten," or,
+worst of all, hollowed beneath, precipitating one in a moment upon cruel
+rocks below. Here several minor accidents, and one of a more serious
+nature occurred: but after all we prefer the snow to the penultimate
+zone above--the region of naked rock-matrix (in Spanish _canchos
+corridos_), where smooth slippery faces of granite left no hold either
+for the snow, or for feet, though clad in hempen-soled _alparagatas_;
+and every crevice filled level with frozen striae of snow. Mass above
+mass towered these monoliths of living granite, veined and streaked with
+the narrow snow-lines: and beyond them, stretching away for leagues,
+came the snow-fields of Gredos, imposing in the majesty of a
+contemporary glacial epoch, and the silence of everlasting ice.
+
+We had high hopes of success in this first _batida_, for the ground
+covered was of great extent, traversed by many ravines and corries, and
+had not been disturbed since the preceding autumn. Yet it proved blank:
+only a single ibex (male) was enclosed, and it escaped on the right, to
+snow-fields beyond our reach.
+
+This operation had lasted four hours, during which the cold had been
+intense, a bitter blast blowing with hurricane-force through the
+rock-passes where we held guard, as through a funnel. At intervals the
+wind came laden with fine snow or jagged crystalline icicles which
+ricochetted from the rocks like things of life. At one period--the
+climax of the storm--if a hundred ibex or wolves had filed past the
+writer's post, his fingers were too benumbed by exposure to have handled
+the rifle. The ascent had also occupied four hours--the apparent
+altitude (by aneroid) being nearly 8,000 feet--and the return to the
+spot fixed for our camp would require two more. Hence no time remained
+for further operations that day, and we returned, sad and empty-handed,
+to camp.
+
+Two blank days followed, and on the third a hurricane of wind, rain, and
+driving mist forbade all hope of sport. The first beat next morning was
+again blank, no ibex being seen; but a second, though covering a much
+smaller area, enclosed a band of eleven. These, when first viewed, were
+coming in directly towards the guns, and held this course till lost to
+sight in an intervening ravine. Shortly afterwards the upper flank of
+the beaters crested the further ridge, and at once, we saw, they opened
+out their line, extending upwards towards the snow. These men had
+already seen that the goats, true to their natural instincts, were
+seeking to gain the higher ground: and a marvellous sight ensued--to
+watch, through the binoculars, these hardy mountaineers fairly racing
+with the fleet-footed ibex, and striving, by sheer speed and strength of
+limb and lung, to head their flight, and cut off their retreat to the
+snow-sanctuaries above.
+
+At first one could not believe that biped, however specially organized,
+could possibly cope, in simple activity, with the wild-goats on their
+native rocks. Yet, when the game emerged from the gorge, it became
+evident that the flank-movement had, at least to some extent, succeeded:
+for the now-alarmed animals, though still tending upwards, had abandoned
+the idea of direct escape in that direction, and were now ascending the
+rocks in a slanting course which pointed very little beyond our own
+positions. The writer, who occupied the upper post, at the foot of some
+terrific _canchos_, which, in cold blood, had seemed insuperable, now,
+in the excitement of the chase, found means--_nescio quos_--to surmount
+the obstacle and gain a "pass" beyond, by which, it seemed likely, the
+game might seek escape. More nimble still, our friend Magdaleno had ere
+this, with winged feet, reached a yet greater height: and here, as the
+ibex, scudding upwards with surprising speed, passed in straggling file,
+his single ball struck fair a lordly ram, and threw back the rest in
+dismay. Quickly followed from below the double crack of an "express":
+but these bullets, fired at 200 yards, produced no perceptible effect.
+
+Turned from their first point, the ibex, now separate and scattered,
+when next they appeared, were heading, some for the snow-fields direct,
+others for the lower passes: in one of which a five-year-old male
+offered a chance, at eighty yards, to the ambushed "Paradox"--a chance
+that was not declined, though only attained at the end of a severe
+scramble of 200 yards across the rocks. The hollow-fronted ball struck
+on the ribs, and traversing the vitals, "mushroomed" itself against the
+shoulder-blade. Presently, from the heights above, rang out three or
+four reports in quick succession--the upward-bound contingent of ibex
+were running the gauntlet of our driving-line. A male and two females
+offered long or random shots to the mountaineers. One of the latter was
+reported hit--though the pair were followed by a _chivo_, or kid, only
+ten days old!--but no tangible result was secured by this fusillade.
+
+[Illustration: OUR FIRST OLD RAM--SIERRA DE GREDOS.]
+
+Meanwhile the stricken _macho_ had descended to the depths of the glen,
+where he was presently descried by our scouts stretched on the shelf of
+a jutting crag, a mile below. How human eye managed to detect so small
+an object amidst so vast a chaos of broken ground, rocks, screes, and
+scrub-clad patches, passes understanding: but soon a long "wing" thrown
+out, turned the flank of his position, and the noble beast, aroused once
+more by the rattle of a rifle-ball on the rocks, made a final effort to
+escape, which was terminated by a "Paradox" bullet at twenty yards'
+distance. This, our first old ibex-ram, carried a handsome, massive
+head; but its symmetry was marred by one of the points being broken.
+The undamaged horn measured rather over twenty-eight inches.
+
+So passed the days with varying incident, which it boots not to recount
+in detail; sometimes we saw game, more often the reverse. One element
+alone remained permanent and changeless--the daily labour was extreme.
+Strength and physical powers were taxed--aye, strained, almost to the
+breaking point, and in these contests of lung and limb the wild-goat
+necessarily held the advantage.
+
+One morning, wind and weather being favourable, it was proposed to
+double-bank our beaters--that is, to drive two separate valleys at once
+towards a single dividing spur.[34] The ascent to-day followed the ridge
+of a deep _garganta_, or rock-abyss, embedded among pines, on one of
+which was superimposed a pile of branches and sticks--the home of a pair
+of Black Vultures (_Vultur monachus_). It was almost a solitary
+tree--one of the few that survived above the pine-zone, finding
+root-hold in a crevice of the hanging rock: a flat-topped,
+wind-tormented tree, its spreading branches distorted by the weight of
+winter's snows. Hard by the nest sat one of these colossal birds, not
+200 yards away, though to have reached the spot, across the gorge, might
+have occupied an hour. An "express" bullet was sent whistling past his
+monkish cranium; slowly the great wings unfolded, and the vulture
+flapped heavily down the ravine.
+
+Vultures are comparatively scarce in this part of Spain--far more so
+than in Andalucia. We only noticed one small colony in the Sierra de
+Gredos; and of its six or eight pairs, our beaters, who passed close
+below their eyries, declared that two were of the black species. The
+Black Vulture is not known to nest either gregariously or on rocks: yet
+we have twice in Andalucia noticed them _apparently_ doing both these
+things--associated with Griffons--but without, on either occasion,
+reducing the observation to proof. The above statement, however, tends
+to confirm the fact. Bird-life, as in most mountain-regions, was not
+abundant here. Buzzards soared over the pines, and the song of our
+common thrushes and blackbirds rang through the woods as at home. Higher
+up were ring-ousels and redstarts, wheatears (_Saricola aurita_ and _S.
+stapazina_), black chats (_Dromoloea leucura_), skylarks and
+titlarks--all these breeding. Besides these, we also observed the
+Egyptian Vulture, the Alpine pipit (_Anthus spipoletta_), and Alpine
+accentor (_Accentor collaris_), both common, the blue thrush,
+rock-thrush, nuthatch, and Dartford warbler: and on May 10th, at 5,500
+feet, after a stormy night, picked up, in a disabled state, a pretty
+little bluethroat (_Cyanecula wolfi_, Brehm) of the _unspotted_ variety,
+with entirely blue gorget. This little wanderer had doubtless perished
+by the severities of weather encountered in crossing this lofty range on
+his passage to the north. During an afternoon's trouting in a hill-burn
+on May 13th, the following additional species were observed (altitude
+5,000 feet)--ortolans, cirl-and corn-buntings, stonechats, wagtails,
+crag-martins, and sandpiper.
+
+Ravens and choughs tenanted the crags, and the red-legs were met with
+very high up. Both in this sierra, in Nevada, and other alpine ranges,
+we have kept a strict look-out for ptarmigan, but not a sign of them
+have we met with. They are unknown to the _cazadores_ of the sierras,
+and it appears certain that none exist in Spain, save in the Pyrenees.
+
+On some precipitous rocks adjoining one of our posts to-day was an eyry
+of some large bird of prey--either a lammergeyer or some eagle, whose
+young brood kept up a plaintive, chattering wail while we were there.
+The spot, however, was inaccessible owing to deep snow and tremendous
+_canchos_ which intervened. One day, close to the snow-line, we came
+across a fat, blue-grey little beastie, apparently of the dormouse tribe
+(_Liron_, in Spanish), but he got to earth, or rather rock, ere we
+could capture him.[35] But we must return to our ibex.
+
+Though, as regards venison, this day's operations proved fruitless, yet
+it remains memorable for the magnificent spectacle afforded of the wild
+ibex on his native heights. As the beaters, looking at the distance like
+mites or fleas, gradually drew in towards the peaks of "El Cumbrasco," a
+herd of eight ibex were observed slowly picking an upward course towards
+the _picachos del canon_. Disturbed, apparently, by some goatherd below,
+these ibex never offered any promise of a shot; yet the spectacle they
+presented, while still wholly careless of danger, the easy grace of
+every movement and spring-like step as they bounded from rock to rock,
+was one of those rare views of wild life one seldom enjoys and never
+forgets.
+
+The ibex took the snow about midway between our two lines, and on the
+glacier-foot, below the "Cannon Rock," they halted as though to court
+admiration--the grand wide sweep and graceful curve of the horns carried
+by two old rams set off in sharply defined outline against the snowy
+background.
+
+[Illustration: Plate XXI.
+
+Page 143.
+
+IBEX-HUNTING--THE TWO OLD RAMS AT THE "CANNON-ROCK."]
+
+[Illustration: THE PEAKS OF GREDOS.]
+
+Other days were devoted to stalking the ibex--each, with his _cazador_
+and a single gun-carrier, on a separate hill; and this was perhaps the
+hardest work of all, involving almost incessant climbing, scrambling,
+and walking on the worst of ground from morning till long after dark.
+But in this sport we have hitherto met with no success, either on this
+or other occasions. The Spanish ibex is so scarce, so rarely seen on the
+move by daylight, and so wedded to snow-fields beyond human reach, that
+it is by mere chance they are found in situations where a stalk is
+possible--very different to the descriptions we have by such men as
+Kinloch and Macintyre, of the sport that ibex afford in the Himalayas.
+There it would seem that _Capra sibirica_ is not infrequently to be
+found resting, feeding, or moving about by day on mountain-sides
+considerably below the snow, and in situations where it is possible for
+the stalker to approach them _from above_. In Spain, where the
+wild-goats are much harassed, we have never had the luck to fall in with
+such opportunities: though that such _do_ occur is demonstrated in a
+subsequent chapter ("Ramon and the two big Rams"). Here, in Gredos, and
+also in the Andalucian sierras, it has not hitherto been our good
+fortune to fall in with ibex where a stalk was even remotely possible.
+Though ibex might be in sight daily, they have been found either on open
+ground or snow, or in crags surrounded by snow--either position equally
+inaccessible to human beings--save on two occasions, both towards
+evening, when goats have been descried on somewhat lower ground than
+usual; but, alas! on the opposite mountain-side, far away, and separated
+from us by an intervening gorge, to cross which and re-ascend the
+further slope would have occupied well nigh half a day. Had such
+opportunities but occurred _in the morning_, instead of the evening, it
+is just possible that this record of our ibex-stalking days might not
+have resulted in a blank.
+
+It is, however, fair to add that we have never tried ibex-stalking in
+_summer_, when the obstruction of the snow would naturally be much less;
+the goats, on the other hand, have then a vastly extended field to roam
+over.
+
+
+II.--RISCOS DE VALDEREJO.
+
+Far away to the eastward, a triple-peaked mountain filled the whole
+horizon. From the distance it appeared to be composed solely of barren
+grey granite, and only sparse patches and striae of snow adorned its
+crests. This was the Riscos de Valderejo, and on its heights there
+roamed, we were told, a good band of ibex, including some _machos_ of
+the first rank.
+
+To this sierra we projected a spring campaign. The distance (by road)
+from the nearest available base was some thirty miles, along smiling
+valleys redolent of historic interest; past castellated monasteries and
+fortresses, relics of feudal times, now abandoned to farmers, and to
+storks, whose nests lined the battlements; for the plough had long
+superseded the sword, and now the deep glens glory in husbandry and
+viticulture. Here corn and vine grow beneath olive, fig, and chestnut:
+verily fruit and grain seem to jostle each other--it is hard to conceive
+a more fertile scene; the air vocal with the melody of nightingales and
+orphean warblers, and the ringing note of golden orioles. The peasantry
+live in crazy, ramshackle hamlets, whose quaint picturesqueness is
+beyond our power to describe, but spend their _al fresco_ lives in the
+field or the vineyard, doing a modicum of work, and a maximum of rest,
+eating, sleeping, or chatting, in happy, contented groups beneath the
+grateful shade of the chestnuts.[36]
+
+Our road was a marvel of extravagant engineering, executed and
+maintained regardless of expense. It is only another of the many
+anomalies of Spain that in rich provinces, such as Andalucia, where
+there are carriages and traffic, there should be no roads; here, in the
+wilds of Castile, where there are neither traffic nor wheeled carriages,
+the road-system is magnificent. The explanation appears to be: in the
+one case, the Government says "you have money, and can make your own
+roads,"--in the other, "there is no money, so we will provide roads,"
+even though they are not required.
+
+The Riscos de Valderejo is an isolated mountain, cut off from
+neighbouring heights by deep gorges on all sides, save where a high, but
+narrow "neck" connects it on the west with the main range. Across this
+neck (5,000 feet) is carried the northern highway--the _carretera de
+Avila_, along which is carried on at intervals a frequent transit of
+mule-teams, droves of cattle, sheep, and the like. At the time of our
+first visit this traffic was almost continuous, for the ancient "Fair"
+of Talavera (40 miles away) was drawing supplies from all the provinces
+of Spain: fine young mules from far Galicia, horses even from the
+Asturias, cattle, goats and sheep, including a few merinos, from
+pastoral Leon. By day or night the monotonous tinkle of the _cencerros_
+(cattle-bells) ceased not on this and many another highway and byeway
+for many a weary league around Talavera.
+
+Such is still, in Spain, the far-reaching power of the "Feria," or Fair:
+an institution antiquated and out of date in modern lands. Yet the
+business and bustle, the display of national types and characteristics
+at the great provincial "fairs"--such as that at Talavera--offer
+pictures of Spanish rural life abounding in interest, and well worthy of
+study and observant description. But the pen must be directed by
+sympathy and understanding, or the result will merely be so much more of
+that silly writing and grotesque "wit," with which we are already only
+too well acquainted. _Pero!... vamonos!_ To our ibex.
+
+Well, the narrow _col_ or neck, connecting the Riscos with the
+neighbouring heights, being thus contaminated--for the wild goat will
+never cross a path or suffer the propinquity of man--the ibex of that
+sierra form an isolated colony, absolutely cut off from all contact with
+their fellows. That such should be able to survive on so limited a
+space--their territory is but eight miles by four--amidst a nation of
+_tiradores_, is partly due to a curious local circumstance. A pair of
+guardias civiles, the military police of Spain, is stationed close below
+the col. Here is the explanation. None of the _serranos_ pay the
+gun-license,--twenty shillings,--and capture, red-handed, means
+disarmament. Hence the presence of this pair of civil guards signifies
+nothing less than security to the isolated ibex of the Riscos; their
+withdrawal would be the signal for extermination within a few years.
+
+We had already pitched our tent on a slope above the col (5,600 feet),
+just within the lower fringe of snow, and were wondering at the
+non-arrival of our hunters. They had taken a short cut across the
+mountains, and should have been the first to reach the spot. But after
+enjoying a delicious bathe in an adjoining burn, and setting on the
+_olla_ to stew on an improvised _anafe_ (a hollowed trench, in the deep
+centre of which was kindled a fire), we suddenly saw them all appear,
+leaping down the opposite slope with the agile bounds of wild animals.
+They had simply lain hidden for hours, reconnoitring the movements of
+the civil guards! Their first act on arrival was to hide their guns
+among the green _piornales_. Again, when one evening the dreaded pair
+was reported to be ascending towards our eyry, the stampede was
+electric--each man seized his gun and all disappeared like rabbits among
+the rocks. The incident serves to show the effective power wielded by
+this fine corps in rural Spain.
+
+[Illustration: Plate XXII.
+
+OUR CAMP ON THE RISCOS DE VALDEREJO.
+
+Page 152.]
+
+The conformation of this sierra was simple--on the north side the slope
+was gradual, though abrupt: on the south almost perpendicular: that is,
+it formed a sheer rock-wall some three miles long and perhaps 2,000 feet
+high, measuring from the head of the talus.[37] We found here a herd of
+nearly a score of ibex, ensconced in well-frequented lairs among the
+loose rocks and _piornales_ along the highest ridge (they had not been
+disturbed for months), and on so limited an area felt sure of more
+certain success than on the boundless sierras of Gredos, with their
+snow-sanctuaries always open to the ibex. But matters were not so
+simple, nor were the goats. Here, too, they had their sanctuaries. We
+will not weary the reader with merely sporting detail, but go at once to
+the point. After being "hustled" for two or three days (during which the
+big males always managed to keep out of shot), the ibex-leaders
+evidently realized the gravity of the situation: a vote of urgency was
+carried, and the Riscos declared in a state of siege. The space at their
+command was limited: there were no snow-fields available: and they
+resolved to seek safety in those impenetrable rock-walls and _canchos_
+which flanked their stronghold on the south. Into these they retreated:
+and from them, no power of ours could dislodge the ibex, though among
+the slanting _canchos_ on the western flank our intrepid rock-climbers
+despatched a couple of slouching wolves. By sheer force of reasoning
+power and sagacity, the ibex had found a retreat as secure as the _mer
+de glace_ of Almanzor. Long may they live to enjoy it!
+
+[Illustration: IBEX-HUNTERS OF GREDOS--A SKETCH BY THE CAMP-FIRE.]
+
+The retreat, however, was not gained, on one occasion, without loss--we,
+too, had learned by past experience. Already the driving line had
+appeared on the eastern heights, suggesting that another beat was to
+prove blank: not a sign of game had appeared--nothing save the Alpine
+choughs[38] and crag-martins, Alpine swifts, and a pair of peregrines
+gyrating in the upper air: at intervals also a pair of golden eagles,
+whose huge eyrie projected from a rocky pinnacle, passed over in stately
+flight, their broad square tails deflected very conspicuously sidelong,
+to guide their aerial evolutions. Here purple tufts of saxifrage lent
+colour to the barren greys: and amidst the fringe of snow grew delicate
+mauve and white crocuses: on a granite rock, hard by, warbled lustily a
+little songster, not unlike our hedge-sparrow, but whose scientific name
+is _Anthus spipoletta_, its tender blue-grey throat swelled with song.
+Suddenly a new sound diverted instant attention from all such things--it
+was a loud "sneeze," twice repeated: and I knew that some wild animal
+stood close behind the big rock which concealed me. Then followed the
+clatter of horny hoofs rattling on rock: and a few moments later, upon
+the very ridge where I lay, not ten yards from the muzzle, appeared a
+pair of ibex. Hardly a whole instant did they pause--pictures of
+high-strung wild nature, and quivering in every nerve--a lovely
+spectacle. At ten yards' range (_a boca de jarro_ in Spanish phrase), my
+right barrel missed fire: and simultaneously the ibex were gone--had
+leaped off the ridge and down among the rocks a dozen yards below. They
+were, however, still near enough; and the second bullet sent the largest
+pitching forward on its knees, all but dividing the spine. It instantly
+recovered its feet, and the pair went on: but on a rock-ledge a
+quarter-mile away they stopped, and one lay down: a long range, random
+shot from the express, and the other went on alone: but the stricken
+beast was already dead. And then, on the rocks close by, I perceived a
+little wild kid, long of limb and somewhat ungainly in form, but of
+infinite grace in movement. Tame and confiding seemed the little mite;
+yet on approach, it bounded off down those broken rocks, with a speed
+and agility that defied pursuit. These two ibex were, in Spanish words,
+a _cabra_ and a _chivata_.
+
+Five other ibex (two males) sought to reach the refuge of the main
+rock-wall by a lower pass, where two guns were posted. Here, as they
+scrambled slantingly up the perpendicular face, one bullet sped true,
+and the best _macho_ fell back, struggling to maintain a foot-hold. This
+his paralyzed quarters forbade, and soon what little life remained was
+extinguished as the stricken animal fell bouncing from rock to rock till
+it finally lodged in a cleft of a projecting spur. He proved an
+eight-year-old ram, with horns measuring nearly twenty-eight inches in
+length, with a circumference of over nine inches and a "sweep" of nearly
+twenty-three.
+
+At length the time arrived to bid farewell to these rock-ramparts of Old
+Castile, and their primitive simple folk, kindly and honest as the day;
+Dionysio actually returned to our camp before daylight next morning--a
+two-league walk--to return a pair of boots left by one of us at his
+cottage! Each man already seemed an old friend. "Hasta la otra," said
+Juan Guarro y Guarro as he offered his hand, "y si no, que lo pasen
+ustedes bien!"--"Till the next time, and, if for ever, fare ye well!"
+The conclusions we came to were that both our visits were rather too
+early (May), and that the most favourable season for ibex-shooting is in
+July and August: but even then, whether by stalking or driving, the work
+is hard in the extreme.
+
+[Illustration: IBEX (FEMALE)--RISCOS DE VALEDREJO.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+IBEX-SHOOTING IN SPAIN--(CONTINUED).
+
+
+III.--SIERRA BERMEJA (MEDITERRANEAN).
+
+In the last chapter are described some experiences with ibex in the
+distant cordilleras of Castile: but we have the wild _cabra montes_ much
+nearer--indeed within sight of our Andalucian home. The Sierra Nevada is
+one of their chief abodes, and herds of goats roam the still nearer
+heights of Ubrique, Bermeja, and the Palmitera. As the circumstances of
+the ibex here vary from those already described, we now add some details
+of campaigns on these Mediterranean ranges.
+
+We pitched our tents one March evening on a narrow flat plateau, barely
+over 2,000 feet, at a point in the Bermeja range, where our pioneer--we
+had employed a native _cazador_ to "prospect" for five or six weeks--had
+localized two or three small herds of ibex. The steep mountain-sides
+around were clad to their utmost summits with strong brushwood and with
+scattered patches of pine and a species of fir
+(_pinsapo_)--admirable-looking ground for pig, but not at all so,
+according to preconceived ideas, for the wild-goat. It was, therefore,
+an agreeable surprise when, early next morning, there were descried
+three ibex, quietly grazing on the bloom of the _abolaga_ brush beyond a
+deep ravine, and only about 1,000 feet above the camp. These three,
+while we watched, were joined by another two, when some make-believe
+"sparring" ensued between a pair of rams: but at this season (March)
+there was obviously no great development of the combative instinct.
+
+The next spectacle was less welcome. On the height of the ridge, high
+above us, we descried against the sky-line the crouching figure of a
+man, stealthily advancing as though in touch of game. This ill-omened
+apparition, as the sequel proved, was the key-note of this campaign: the
+_semana santa_ of Easter-tide had commenced, we were forestalled by
+native _cazadoras_, and a carefully-planned and well-organized
+exhibition resulted in comparative failure. Nor had the danger of this
+been entirely unforeseen, but adverse circumstances had delayed our
+movements.
+
+[Illustration: IBEX (FEMALE)--BERMEJA.]
+
+Despite our local competitors, luck at first seemed inclined to be
+propitious. While going to our positions, along the knife-edged spur
+that enclosed our glen, an ibex fell to the rifle of one of our party,
+who had come suddenly on five (four good males) quietly feeding in a
+pine-clad corrie, and a standing shot, at 70 yards, secured
+one--unfortunately the only _cabra_; for, their heads being concealed
+among the scrub, the sex was not distinguished. This female (shot March
+26th) was found, on being gralloched, to contain a pair of kids, which
+would not have seen the light under three weeks. Another female,
+followed by her _chivata_, was shot on this beat, though eventually
+lost, by one of our Spanish _cazadores_, Juan Marquez.
+
+The field of our operations was _all_ scrub--strong thorny bushes
+clothing the steep and rock-strewn slopes, amidst which we subsequently
+found many "lairs" of the ibex--regular seats, like those of a hare or
+fox. Hidden in these strongholds, the ibex, our men asserted, would
+deliberately allow the beaters to pass them by: but we have strong
+grounds for the opinion that this only applied to the _females_--all
+ages or sexes, be it repeated, are alike to a _cazador_--and never to
+the males, which, always wild and crafty, rely for safety on far bolder
+tactics and modes of escape.
+
+Pines and fir interspersed the scrub to the very _reales_ or utmost
+heights of Bermeja--4,800 feet by aneroid: and Palmitera, though the
+snow lies longer there, is of a trifle less altitude. Though, on this
+occasion, our sport was marred and exuberance of spirit tempered by the
+constant competition of local hunters--by those visions of the hated
+"gente de Enalguacil" scampering like the goats themselves up the rocks
+before us--yet, at least, we enjoyed, from the crest of Bermeja, a
+spectacle which is probably without rival in Europe, and the like of
+which we have not gazed upon in our lives. Looking down from near 5,000
+feet altitude, we had portions of two continents spread out as a map at
+out feet. The vast expanse of deep blue Mediterranean visible from such
+elevations is hard to picture--the level sea appears to tower up,
+regardless of physical laws, among the clouds themselves: yet, far
+beyond its southern shores, we could look right into the dark continent,
+across range beyond range of African mountains, terminating only in the
+glittering snow-peaks of the Atlas, on the verge of Saharan deserts.
+Gibraltar looked like a tiny islet in the Straits, midway between Jebel
+Moosa's cloud-wreathed mass, and the loftier Spanish sierras beyond
+Algesiraz. Tangier, Ceuta, and Melilla, on the African shore, were
+faintly discernible; and, on the Spanish side, the unbroken snows of
+Nevada, fifty miles away, glistened in the sunshine as though within
+rifle-shot, with all the swelling _vegas_ of Western Andalucia; while,
+right beneath us, lay the rich _Ensenada de Marbella_, the fertile
+fringe that borders the Mediterranean, white with waving fields of
+sugar-cane, cotton, and carob, prolific of date-palm and fig-tree, of
+corn, oil, and wine--one of earth's most fruitful gardens.
+
+From our posts, at the head of a dizzy tumble of rocks and screes, no
+fewer than five distinct mountain-ranges were in sight, one-rising
+beyond the other, the last and loftiest clad in snow. To and fro in
+mid-air, far beneath, sailed a superb pair of lammergeyers, their
+expanded pinions gleaming almost white in the sunlight. These giant
+birds had their eyry in a series of granite _canchos_ near the apex of
+the gorge; but, at intervals, also entered a cave in another crag which,
+we subsequently ascertained, had formed their home in a previous year.
+
+Amongst the birds observed here, which may be mentioned as typical of
+the Mediterranean sierras, were golden, booted, and Bonelli's eagles, a
+single griffon-vulture, peregrine and goshawk, a pair of sparrow-hawks,
+busy carrying sticks, ravens, jays, great spotted woodpecker, wrens,
+crag-martins (_Cotile rupestris_), the usual chats, and a few cushats.
+Hawfinches and great tits were abundant among the pines, and in the
+early dawn the melodious song of the blue-thrush reminded one of
+Scandinavian springs and the redwing's note. Another small bird causes
+recurrent annoyance to the ibex-shooter. With a loud "rat-tat-tat,"
+closely resembling the patter of horny hoofs on rock, its song
+commences; then follows a curious hissing note, not unlike the passing
+of a heavy body through brushwood--for a moment one hopes that the
+coveted and long-awaited game at length is coming. No! confound that
+bird; it's only a redstart!
+
+[Illustration: Plate XXIII.
+
+Page 161.
+
+IBEX-HUNTING--A SKETCH IN THE SIERRA BERMEJA.]
+
+No ibex, however, appeared here to us expectant. The natives,
+_tiradores_ of Enalguacil, of Coein and other hamlets of the sierra,
+sleeping on the open hill, and possessing twice our speed of foot on
+their native rocks, were always on our front; and in order to get clear
+of competition, we moved our camp across the ridge to the north. This
+operation involved sending forward at daybreak a dozen men with hatchets
+to clear a way for the laden mules, some fifty or sixty well-grown
+pines, with hundreds of lesser growth, perishing before a passage was
+practicable. We encamped on a forest-opening at a spot called the Majada
+del Alcornoque, altitude 3,400 feet, the same evening--first having to
+remove several hundred stones from the camping-ground, for almost each
+afforded shelter to a scorpion or gigantic centipede.
+
+Here, during the next few days, we had the (to us) singular experience
+of ibex-driving in thick pine-forest and deep wooded ravines, with
+generally a strong undergrowth of bushes and scrub--the _beau ideal_ of
+a roe-deer country, but the last place in the world in which we should
+have expected wild-goat. The goats were there, nevertheless, for females
+and young males were seen on different occasions by guns or beaters. In
+one tremendous clam-shaped gorge, an ibex and a wild pig were both on
+foot at once! The only ibex the present writer had the luck to see in
+this part of the sierra--which seemed to be composed almost entirely of
+ironstone and other mineral ores--was by a purely fortuitous encounter.
+On the sudden lifting of a dense cloud-bank which rested on the
+mountain-side, I descried, right above me, four ibex--including two
+fair-sized rams--all standing on a projecting rock, in bold relief
+against the sky, and not above 400 yards away. The intervening ground
+was rugged--rocks and brushwood with scattered pines--and, except for
+the first fifty yards, the stalk seemed to offer no great difficulty.
+Already I had passed the dangerous bit, and had crawled near 200 yards,
+when, alas! in a moment the wet mist settled down again, and I saw no
+more of the game.
+
+Curiously, on the fog first lifting, a large eagle sat, all bedraggled
+and woe-begone, on a rock-point not forty yards from my shelter, his
+feathers all fluffed out, and a great yellow talon protruding, as it
+seemed, from the very centre of his chest. Then a faint sun-ray played
+on his tawny plumage; he shook himself together, and launched out in air
+to renew his hunt, sweeping downwards close past me--luckily without
+disturbing the ibex, though I saw them take note of the circumstance.
+
+To our other misfortunes was now superadded the discomfort of bad
+weather. Here is an extract from diary:--March 31st.--Glass fell last
+night four-tenths to 25' 85", and the morning broke with a whole gale
+from W., bitterly cold, with driving masses of cloud, gradually changing
+to rain and sleet--a bad prospect.
+
+[Illustration: SOARING VULTURE.]
+
+The rain, fog, and gale continuing, sporting operations were
+interrupted, and a fine male ibex, shot the night before, was lost, it
+being no longer possible to follow the trail. We endured a pretty bad
+time of it, under canvas, in our mountain-perch; but for our poor
+beaters it was ten-fold worse--sleeping on the bare ground beneath
+torrential rains, or under such scant shelter of pine-branches as they
+could rig up.
+
+We had about a score of these mountaineers in our employ--a
+wild-looking lot, who, when not otherwise engaged, were chiefly
+_contrabandistas_. Many of these _serranos_ had joined our party purely
+for the love of sport, and for no pay beyond such frugal fare as our
+camp might afford--scanty enough some days, though good red wine and
+cigarettes were never wanting. The previous week a somewhat serious
+affray, we now heard, had taken place close by. A gang of 100 smugglers
+convoying thirty horse-loads of tobacco, &c., were attacked at the
+passage of the Guadiarro by a force of fifty carabineers. Many shots
+were exchanged, the smugglers being armed with Remingtons, with the
+result that seven men were killed and many others wounded. The whole of
+the thirty cargoes were eventually captured, but the horses escaped, the
+smugglers cutting the girth-ropes; nor were any prisoners made. This
+information was given us by the Colonel of carabineers commanding the
+district, whom we met a few days later in Estepona.
+
+Here is another reflex of local character--a cutting from a Malaga paper
+of April 1st, 1891, among the ordinary items of local news:--
+
+"BANDIDO.--The Civil Guard of Malaga encountered on Wednesday, near
+Coein, the celebrated bandit Mena, who has long held the whole of that
+district in terror. The individuals of the Civil Guard demanded his
+surrender, to which summons he replied with the discharge of his weapon.
+This brought on a ferocious struggle, resulting in the death of the
+freebooter, who received two bullet-wounds from his aggressors."
+
+Such tendencies become infectious, and, as a relief to the tedium of
+forced inactivity, and wet days under canvas--for the flooded
+_gargantas_ made sport impossible--it occurred to one restless spirit
+that we might ourselves embark in this popular business of
+_bandolerismo_. Had we not a score of bold brigands ready at our hand?
+And, besides, there was not wanting eminently suitable material for
+"sequestration"--what a subject for a chapter! But ... well, the
+opportunity was thrown away, and, the deluge still continuing, in the
+morning our smuggler-chief, old Marquez, came in to say that the
+people, like the Israelites of old, wished to depart, each man to his
+own house--"cada uno a su casa."
+
+[Illustration: FOREST-IBEX--BERMEJA. (Showing narrower sweep of horn.)]
+
+Though we did not succeed in obtaining a really first-rate ibex-head
+during this campaign in the southern sierras, yet, judging from two
+_machos_ subsequently secured on an adjacent range (three and
+five-year-old males respectively), the difference in the form of horn in
+these forest-haunting goats from those of the Alpine sierras is only
+trifling. Compared with circumference, the horns are of lesser length,
+and hardly, perhaps, branch out so widely; but that may, after all, be
+only a question of age.
+
+IBEX-STALKING.--It may occur to the sportsman-reader to observe that we
+have said very little of ibex-_stalking_. The reason is that, as before
+mentioned, we have little but negative experiences to relate, having met
+with no success ourselves in that sport. Both in Andalucia and the
+Castiles we have followed some of the longest and most severe days' work
+in search of ibex, but without success. The ibex are relatively _very
+scarce_, scattered sparsely over vast areas, and rarely to be seen on
+the move during daylight. It is, of course, in all stalking a first
+essential that a great extent of country be brought under survey. This
+implies covering long distances; and the extreme difficulties of
+locomotion on the Spanish cordilleras forbid this. We do not speak
+without a basis of comparative experience, having seen something of
+mountain-game in various lands. It may be that we lack speed of foot in
+traversing those rugged rock-peaks--we are far from denying this, let
+those smile who may. Few will do so who have once attempted to seek out
+and stalk the wild ibex--or it may be only bad luck. At any rate, our
+hardest days on Nevada or Gredos have not, so far, been rewarded by a
+single shot, or even by the sight of an ibex in a position where a stalk
+might be dreamt of.
+
+
+IV.--NEVADA AND THE ALPUJARRAS--TEN DAYS IN A SNOW-CAVE.
+
+The grandeur of the Sierra Nevada, with its lofty sky-lines, all white
+and clean-cut against an azure background, majestic Mulahacen and the
+Picachos de la Veleta, are familiar objects to most visitors to Southern
+Spain. The majority, however, are content with the distant view from the
+palace-fortresses of the Alhambra or the turrets of the Generalife. Few
+dream of penetrating those alpine solitudes or scaling their peaks,
+which look so near, yet cost such toil and labour to gain. Yet the
+labour is repaid, if the traveller has an eye for what is wildest and
+grandest in nature.
+
+For ourselves, we are not ashamed to admit that these snow-clad sierras
+possess attractions that transcend in interest even the accumulated
+art-treasures and wealth of historic and legendary lore that surround
+the shattered relics of Moslem rule--of an empire-city where for seven
+centuries the power and faith of the crescent dominated the south-west
+of Europe, and which formed the home and the centre of mediaeval chivalry
+and culture. These subjects and sentiments, moreover, stand in no need
+of a historian: they have engaged the sympathy of legion pens, many
+directed by a grace, a power and a knowledge to which we dream not of
+aspiring. To us Granada has rather been merely a "base of operations"
+whence the ibex and lammergeyer might conveniently be studied or
+pursued.
+
+Of our own experiences amidst the twin heights of Nevada and the
+Alpujarras we might write: but, in this case, we have preferred to avail
+ourselves of certain notes for which we are indebted to two good friends
+and thorough sportsmen, in the hope that the change may be to the reader
+a pleasing contrast from the _semper ego_ otherwise inevitable.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+On a bitterly cold March morning we found ourself, as day slowly broke,
+traversing the outspurs of the sierra--on the scene of the great
+earthquake of 1884, evidences of which were plentiful enough among the
+scattered hill-villages. Already many mule-teams, heavily laden with
+merchandise from the coast-town of Motril, were wending their laborious
+way inland. It is worth noting that in front of five or six laden mules
+it is customary to harness a single donkey. This animal does little
+work: but always passes approaching teams on the proper side, and,
+moreover, picks out the best parts of the road. This enables the driver
+to go to sleep, and the plan, we were told, is a good one.
+
+At Lanjaron we breakfasted at the ancient _fonda_ of San Rafael, where
+the bright and beautifully polished brass and copper cooking utensils
+hanging on the walls were a sight to make a careful housewife envious.
+We watched our breakfast cooked over the charcoal-fire, and learned a
+good deal thereby. We were delayed here a whole day by snow-storms.
+There is stabling under the _fonda_ for 500 pack-animals, for Lanjaron
+in its "season" is an important place, frequented by invalids from far
+and near. Its mineral-springs are reputed efficacious: but the drainage
+arrangements are villainous in the extreme, and altogether it seemed a
+village to be avoided. Sad traces of the cholera were everywhere
+visible, many doors and lintels bearing the ominous sign: it was curious
+that in so few cases had it been erased.
+
+We left before daybreak, and a few leagues further on the ascent became
+very steep and abrupt, the hill-crests whither we were bound within
+view, but wreathed in mist. Only one traveller did we meet in the long
+climb from Orjiva to Capileira, and he bringing two mule-loads of dead
+and dying sheep, worried by wolves just outside Capileira the night
+before. Expecting that the wolves would certainly return, we prepared to
+wait up that night for them: but were dissuaded, the argument being
+"that is exactly what they will expect! No, those wolves will probably
+not come back this winter." But return they did, both that night and
+several following. The night before we left Capileira on the return
+journey (a fortnight later), they came in greater numbers than ever and
+killed over twenty sheep.
+
+Capileira is the highest hamlet in the sierra, and is celebrated for its
+hams, which are cured in the snow. Here we put up for the night,
+sleeping as best we could amidst fowls and fleas, after an amusing
+evening spent around the fire, where one pot cooked for forty people
+besides ourselves. The cold was intense, streams of fine snow whirling
+in at pleasure through the crazy shutters: so we were glad to go to
+bed--indeed I was chased thither by a hungry sow on the prowl, seeking
+something to eat, apparently in my portmanteau.
+
+Heavy snow-falls that night and all next day prevented our advance: but
+at an early hour on the following morning we were under way--six of
+us--on mules, though I would have preferred to walk, the snow being so
+deep one could not see where the edges of the precipices were. No sooner
+had I mounted than the mule fell down, while crossing a hill-torrent,
+and I was glad to find the water no deeper. After climbing steadily
+upwards all the morning, the last two hours on foot, the snow knee-deep,
+we at length sighted the cairn on the height to which we were bound.
+Before nightfall we had reached the point, but few of the mules
+accomplished the last few hundred yards. After bravely trying again and
+again, the poor beasts sank exhausted in the snow, and we had to carry
+up the impedimenta ourselves in repeated journeys. The deep snow, the
+tremendous ascent, and impossibility of seeing a foothold made this
+porterage most laborious: but we had all safely stowed in our cave
+before sundown.
+
+The overhanging rock, which for the next ten or twelve days was to serve
+as our abode, we found a mass of icicles. These we proceeded to clear
+away, and then by a good fire to melt our ice-enamelled rock-ceiling,
+fancying that the constant drip on our noses all night might be
+unpleasant. The altitude of our ledge above sea-level was about 8,500
+feet, and our plateau of rest--our home, so to speak--measured just
+seven yards by two.
+
+Early next morning we proceeded to erect snow-screens at favourable
+passes, wherein to await the wild-goats as they moved up or down the
+mountain-side at dawn and dusk respectively, their favourite food being
+the rye-grass which the peasants from the villages below contrive to
+grow in tiny patches--two or three square yards scattered here and there
+amidst the crags. It is only by rare industry that even so paltry a crop
+can be snatched at such altitudes, and during the short period when the
+snow is absent from the southern aspects. At present it enveloped
+everything--not a blade of vegetation, nor a mouthful for a wild-goat
+could be seen.
+
+Although in going to our _puestos_ during the day the snow was generally
+soft--the sun being very hot--yet in returning after dark we found the
+way most dangerous, traversing a sloping, slippery ice-surface like a
+huge glacier, where a slip or false step would send one down half a mile
+with nothing to clutch at or to save oneself. Such a slide meant death,
+for it could only terminate in an awful precipice or in one of those
+horrible holes with a raging torrent to receive one in its dark abyss,
+and convey the fragments beneath the snow--where to appear next? Each
+step had to be cut with a hatchet, or hollowed--the butt of a rifle is
+not intended for such work, but has had to perform it.
+
+Every day here we saw goats on or about the snow-fields and towering
+rocks above our cave. They were of a light fawn colour, very shaggy in
+appearance, some males carrying magnificent long horns. One old ram
+seemed to be always on the watch, kneeling down on the very verge of a
+crag 500 or 600 yards above us, and which commanded a view for
+miles--_miles_, did we say? paltry words! From where that goat was, he
+could survey half-a-dozen provinces.
+
+These ibex were quite inaccessible, and though daily seen, nearly a week
+had passed away ere a wild-goat gave us a chance. One night shortly
+after quitting my post, little better than a human icicle, and not
+without fear of the dangers of scrambling cave-wards, in absolute
+darkness along the ice-slope, a little herd of goats passed--mere
+shadows--within easy shot of where, five minutes before, I had been
+lying in wait. On another morning at dawn the tracks of a big male
+showed that he, too, must have passed at some hour of the night within
+five-and-twenty yards of the snow-screen.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+But it was not till a whole week had elapsed that we had the ibex really
+in our power. Just as day broke a herd of eight--two males and six
+females--stood not forty yards from our cave-dwelling. The fact was
+ascertained by one Esteban, a Spanish sportsman whom we had taken with
+us. Silently he stole back into the cave, and without a word, or
+disturbing the dreams of his still sleeping employers, picked up an
+"express" and went forth. Then the loud double report at our very
+doors--that is, had there been a door--aroused us, only to find ... the
+spoor of that enormous ram, the spot where he had halted, listening,
+close above the cave, and the splash of the lead on the rock
+beyond--_eighteen inches_ too low! an impossible miss for any one used
+to the "express." Oh, Esteban, Esteban! what were our feelings towards
+you on that fateful morn!
+
+Life in a mountain-cave high above the level of perpetual snow--six men
+huddled together in the narrow space, two English and four
+Spaniards--has its weird and picturesque, but it has also its harder
+side. Yet those days and nights, passed amidst majestic scenes and
+strange wild beasts, have left nothing but pleasant memories, nor have
+their hardships deterred one of us from repeating the experiment.
+Probably both these campaigns were too early in the season (March and
+April).
+
+The only birds seen in the high sierra were choughs and ravens:
+ring-ouzels a little lower down. There were plenty of trout, though
+small, in the hill-burns. On one occasion we witnessed an extraordinary
+circular rainbow across a deep gorge, with our own figures perfectly
+reflected in the centre on passing a given point.
+
+The ice-going abilities of the mountaineers were something
+marvellous--incredible save to an eye-witness. Across even a north
+drift, hard and "slape" as steel, and hundreds of yards in extent, these
+men would steer a sliding, slithering course at top speed, directed
+towards some single projecting rock. To miss that refuge might mean
+death: but they did not miss it, ever, in their perilous course, making
+good a certain amount of forward movement. At that rock they would
+settle in their minds the next point to be reached, quietly smoking a
+cigarette meanwhile before making a fresh start. How such performances
+diminish one's own self-esteem! How weak are our efforts! Even on the
+softer southern drifts, what balancing, what scrambling and crawling on
+hands and knees one finds necessary, and what a "cropper" one would have
+come but for the friendly arm of Enrique, who, as he arrests one's
+perilous slide, merely mutters "Ave Maria purissima!"
+
+ * * * * *
+
+Now we have left the ice and snow and the ibex to wander in peace over
+their lonely domains. To-night we have dined at a _table_: there is a
+cheery fire in the rude little _posada_ and merry voices, contrasting
+with the silence of our cave, where no one spoke above a whisper, and
+where no fire was permissible save once a day to heat the _olla_. Now
+all we need is a song from the Murillo-faced little girl who is fanning
+the charcoal-embers. "Sing us a couplet, Dolores, to welcome us back
+from the snows of Alpujarras!"
+
+_Dolores_: With the greatest pleasure, _Caballero_, if Jose will play
+the guitar. No one plays like Jose, but he is tired, having travelled
+all day with his mules from Lanjaron.
+
+_Jose_: No, senor, not tired, but I have no soul to-night to play. This
+morning they asked me to bring medicine from the town for Carmen: but
+when I reached the house she was dead. I find myself very sad.
+
+_Dolores_: "Pero, si ya tiene su palma y su corona?" ...but as she
+already has her palm and her crown?
+
+_Jose_: That is true! Bring the guitar and I will see if it will quit me
+of this _tristeza_!
+
+Next morning the snow prevented our leaving: and the day after, while
+riding away, we met some of the villagers carrying poor Carmen to the
+burial-ground on the mountain-side. The body, plainly robed in white,
+was borne on an open bier, the hands crossed and head supported on
+pillows, thus allowing the long unfettered hair to hang down loose
+below. It was an impressive and a picturesque scene; and as I rode on,
+the rejoinder of Dolores came to my mind--"Ya tiene su palma y su
+corona."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+TROUT AND TROUTING IN SPAIN.
+
+
+A land without Trout labours, in our eyes, under grave physical
+disadvantages; its currency is, metaphorically, below par, its stocks at
+a discount. The absence of many modern luxuries in Spain--say, manhood
+suffrage, school-boards, and the like--we can survive; the absence of
+trout, never. Not even the presence on mountain, moor, or marsh, of such
+noble denizens as Spain can boast--the ibex, bustard, and boar, the lynx
+and lammergeyer--can wholly, from an angler's point of view, fill the
+void, or atone for the absence of sparkling streams and that gamest of
+fresh-water game, the trout. The reproach, however, does not apply; for,
+to her many sporting treasures, Spain can claim, in addition, this gem
+of the subaqueous world. No one, however, it should be added, who has
+other lands open to him, should ever go to Spain expressly for
+trout-fishing.
+
+Subject to the provisoes that follow (fairly extensive ones, too), trout
+may be said to exist sporadically all over the Iberian Peninsula; but,
+in the south, they are limited to the alpine streams of the sierras, and
+seldom descend below the 2,000 feet level. Troutlets abound in the
+mountain-torrents of the loftiest southern sierras (Nevada, Morena,
+Ronda, and all their infinite ramifications), the larger fish seeking
+rather lower levels and deeper pools. Three-pounders grace the classic
+streams of Genil and Darro, and deserve attention from angling visitors
+to the famed Moorish fortress of Boabdil and his dark-eyed houris. The
+Guadiarro, also, and some others of the Mediterranean rivers, afford
+shelter, in their middle and upper waters, to _Salmo fario_.
+
+In the sluggish, mud-charged rivers of the corn-plains, and of the
+upland plateaux, the trout, of course, finds no place. The finned
+inhabitants of these regions, so far as our limited knowledge goes, are
+the shad (_sabalo_) and coarse fish, such as dace (_lisa_) and his
+congeners, with monster eels, crayfish, and the like. But as the
+rock-ramparts of the Castiles and Northern Estremadura are approached,
+our speckled friend again appears. Beneath the towering sierras of
+Gredos and Avila we have landed him while resting from the severer
+labours of ibex-hunting on the heights above.
+
+These upland streams of Castile run crystal-clear, with alternate pools
+and rapids in charming sequence. Many closely resemble our moorland
+burns of Northumbria--even the familiar sandpiper, the white-chested
+dipper, and the carol of the sky-lark (a note unheard in Southern
+Spain), are there to heighten the similitude; but here, heather and
+bracken are replaced by _bresos_ and _piornales_--shrubs whose English
+names (if they have any) we know not. The trout run smaller in inverse
+ratio of the altitude; in a stream at 8,000 feet the best averaged four
+to the pound; in another, barely below snow-level, six or eight would be
+required to complete that weight--small enough, but welcome as a change,
+both of sport and fare. Who, but an angler, though, can appreciate the
+heaven-sent joys of casting one's lines on "fresh streams and waters
+new"?
+
+This watershed marks the southern limit at which (within our
+observation) the art of fly-fishing is practised by Spanish anglers--of
+their more usual modes of taking the trout, we treat anon. Fly-fishing,
+did we say? Fishing with fly would be a more accurate definition; the
+moment a trout seizes the rudely-tied feathers, he is jerked out,
+regardless of size or sport--the tackle used, it goes without saying, is
+of the strongest and coarsest. To play and land a trout _secundum artem_
+was, we were assured, impossible, by reason of the _malesas_--weeds,
+snags, and rocks, which stud the arcana of the depths. But it fell to
+our lot to demonstrate to our worthy friends that this theory was
+untenable. With a light twelve-foot bamboo, and on gut finer far than
+ever entered a Spanish angler's dream (though it all comes from
+Catalonia), we had the satisfaction of raising, playing, and landing
+sundry creels-full of shapely fish that exceeded, both as to numbers and
+weight, the best local performances in manifold proportion. Do not, kind
+reader, attribute egotistic motives for this statement. No great measure
+of skill was required to treble or quadruple the natives' takes; and any
+angler will say at once that such was just the result that might have
+been expected. While we write, comes a letter from that out-of-the-world
+spot, asking for a supply of our English gut and flies.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+In Portugal also--save on the monotonous levels of the Alemtejo and
+Algarve--the trout exists in nearly all suitable localities--that is,
+they are confined to the streams of the hill-country of the north. Years
+ago, on the virgin rivers of the Entre-Douro-e-Minho, our friend Mr. J.
+L. Teage enjoyed good sport with trout and gillaroo. It was indeed, to
+some extent, the success of his _mosca encantada_ that helped to arouse
+the slumbering utilitarian greed of the simple Lusitanian peasant, who,
+seeing, or thinking that he saw, an undreamed source of wealth in his
+rivers, borrowed of his Basque and Galician neighbours their deadly
+systems of poison and dynamite, and proceeded forthwith to kill the
+goose that laid this golden egg. As a natural result, at the present day
+many of the waters of Northern Portugal are all but depopulated--hardly
+a sizeable fish can now be taken where four or five-pounders swam of
+yore.
+
+It is, however, the northern provinces of Spain, the Asturias and
+Cantabrian highlands, and the rivers that run into Biscay, that form the
+true home of Iberian _Salmonidae_. Here, in a land of towering mountains,
+pine-clad and mist-enshrouded, and of rushing, rapid streams, are found
+both the salmon, the sea-trout, and the yellow trout.[39]
+
+Of the Salmon (_Salmo salar_) in Spain, we have had no experience, and
+will say nothing more than that the southernmost limit of its range
+appears to be the river Minho, on the frontier of Portugal, and that the
+resistless energy of British sportsmen has succeeded (despite the local
+difficulties referred to later) in acquiring fishing rights of no small
+excellence. Nor have we fished specially for the sea-trout, which are
+killed with fly and other sporting lures, both in the upper streams and
+in the brackish waters of the tideways, all along the Biscayan coast,
+commencing to "run" in February. Some of their habits appear here to
+differ from what we observe at home; but, without more precise
+knowledge, we prefer to pass them by for the present.
+
+No more lovely trouting waters can angling introspect conceive than some
+of those in Northern Spain. Now surging through some tortuous gorge in
+successive pools, dark, and foam-flecked, each of which look like
+"holds" for monsters; now opening out on a hill-girt plateau, where the
+current broadens into rippled shallows, with long-tailed runs and
+hollowed banks, the Cantabrian rivers offer promises all too fair. For
+the unfortunate trout has no fair play meted out to him in this hungry
+land. No count is taken of his noble qualities, nor of his economic
+necessities. Poor _Salmo fario_ is here simply a comestible, and nothing
+more. In season and out, throughout the twelvemonth, he is
+persecuted--done to death with nets, poison, and dynamite. We have
+elsewhere remarked on the paradoxical character of the Spanish
+_cazador_, and that of the _pescador_ is the same. Though observant of
+his quarry, apt, intelligent, and highly skilled in the arts of sport,
+yet he is not a sportsman in the truer sense of the term. His object is
+utilitarian, not sentimental--he cultivates knowledge and the practices
+of field-craft simply that he may fill the _puchero_.
+
+A large proportion of the adult male population of each riverside hamlet
+in Northern Spain are _pescadores_--professional fishermen: and all day
+long one sees them grovelling among the stones of the river-bed fixing
+those hateful funnel-nets that, at night, entrap the luckless trout as
+they wander over the shallows. But if they confined their operations to
+these, and to the infinite variety of nets of other shapes and forms
+that festoon the village street, things might not be so bad, nor the
+case of the trout so hopeless and desperate. They have far more deadly
+devices for massacre by wholesale. Into the throat of some lovely stream
+is tipped a barrow-load of quicklime: down goes the poisonous dose,
+dealing out death and destruction to every fish, great or small, in that
+stream: and, if that is not enough, or if the pool is long and sullen,
+he proceeds to blow up its uttermost depths with dynamite. And in the
+hot summer months, when the streams, at lowest summer-level, run almost
+dry, the heaviest trout are decimated by "tickling."
+
+These methods prevail in every part of Spain and Portugal where trout or
+other edible fish exist. What chance have they to live?
+
+There are, moreover, difficulties, either of law or of custom, that, in
+some parts of Spain, render the preservation of rivers troublesome, if
+not impossible. Hence the poor Spanish Salmonidae can hardly hope to
+receive that aegis of kindly protection that has been so advantageously
+(for them, and others) extended to their British and Scandinavian
+congeners.
+
+Another drawback--which, though common to most lands, is specially
+pronounced in metalliferous Spain--lies in the noxious effusions from
+mines, which are freely discharged, for private profit, into public
+waters. This evil was forcibly brought home by our first day's
+experience in Cantabria. Hour after hour we had plied most lovely water
+without success--fly, worm, and phantom alike failed to elicit a single
+response. On returning with empty creel to the _posada_, to us our host,
+"_Hombre_, have you been fishing the Tesarco? _Que disparate!_ there is
+a copper-mine two leagues further up: there have been no fish in that
+river for years." Considering that we had employed a local guide,
+furnished by the said host, the occasion appeared to justify a protest
+of not unmeasured wrath. But there is no use losing one's temper in
+Spain: no quality there so valuable as patience: and the reward of a
+modicum of reasoned restraint was that the rough, but kind-hearted
+Asturian insisted next morning on accompanying us himself to another
+river, seven miles away, where we enjoyed, for Spain, excellent sport.
+
+Under the adverse conditions above outlined, it would be irrational to
+look for any very great measure of success in Spanish trouting--though,
+were it possible (which it is not) to secure fair play for the
+Salmonidae, there is no physical or other reason why the Basque and
+Biscayan provinces might not rival either Scotch or Scandinavian waters.
+The following brief records of a few experiences in Northern Spain will
+serve to illustrate what may be expected, in a sporting sense, of the
+Cantabrian trout.
+
+
+SANTANDER (PROVINCIA).
+
+The Province of Santander, hardly less wild and mountainous than the
+Asturias, presents somewhat similar conditions of water, fish, and
+sport. The Cantabrian range, extending from Pyrenees to Atlantic, the
+common southern boundary of all the Biscayan provinces, attains in
+Santander some of its greatest elevations, including the celebrated
+Picos de Europa (9,000 feet), the home of the Spanish bear and chamois.
+The trend of the land dips gradually from these inland heights towards
+the sea: yet even on the coast the scenery is savage and grand, some of
+the altitudes being very great. The view looking across the magnificent
+harbour of Santander recalls in the "Sunny South" the scenery of Arctic
+Norway, with all the fantastic tracery of snow-mountains and jagged
+peaks vividly reflected in the unruffled breadths of the fjord.
+
+The rivers, of course, reflect the characteristics of the land. Born of
+the mountain and the snow-field, they come leaping and surging seawards,
+dancing to their own wild music, as they crush through narrow gorges, by
+crag and hanging wood, hurrying ever northward towards the Biscayan sea.
+The angler's path along their banks is no made road: often for miles,
+ay, leagues, he may be constrained to follow the goatherds' upland
+path--a _camino de perdices_ in native phrase--and only able to gaze
+down, like Tantalus, on tempting streams, perhaps close beneath, yet far
+beyond his reach.
+
+Here, as elsewhere, success, we found, was not to be had for the wooing,
+nor at the first time of asking. Rivers that offered fair
+promise--beautiful waters, such as Besaya and Saja, embedded amidst ilex
+and chestnut, where moss-grown rocks impended darkly pools, whereon
+foam-flakes slowly revolved, or the more rapid streams of Reinosa, full
+of cataracts and tearing "races" that eat away their steep
+gravel-banks--all these _may_ prove blank, or a long day's work be only
+rewarded by a few insignificant troutlets or par.
+
+While fishing in the Reinosa district, we were told by our host that
+there lived some few leagues away _un Ingles muy aficionado_--a fishing
+enthusiast. Thither we moved our quarters: our new-made friend was one
+of those Anglo-Saxon Crusoes whom one meets with, self-buried, for one
+reason or another, in the recesses of wild lands, where sport or
+solitude may be enjoyed in degrees not possible at home. Retired from a
+public service through an infirmity begotten by the incidence of his
+duties, he was spending the prime of life in this remote spot, satisfied
+with an environment of Nature's purest scenes and with a modicum of
+sport to reconcile him to exile. A type of the British sportsman abroad
+was X., keen almost to a fault, little apt to measure success solely by
+results, a hard day's work was not deemed ill-rewarded by a brace or two
+of red-legs, or half a dozen quail, while for the chance of a boar he
+would walk well-nigh half the night, to reach by dawn the point where
+the retreat of some old tusker, which was ravaging the peasants' crops,
+might perchance be cut off.
+
+There were six or eight miles to walk on the morrow ere a line was
+wetted--at first along a highway, whence X. plunged _in medias res_,
+that is into a rough strath, horrid with shifting shingle and thorny
+scrub, where progress was painful enough: but our companion never
+slacked speed, and when he continued his wild career, unchecked, through
+a brawling torrent full of boulders and well-nigh waist-deep, with a
+current like a mill-race, doubts of his sanity began to arise: or was he
+only testing us? Soon afterwards, providentially, we reached the main
+stream: fair trouting water, with rather too much current, the runs
+being almost continuous, and leaving scant space of "slack." Here we set
+up our rods: the first seething pool yielded a brace, besides false
+rises, and in half an hoar we had "creeled" several and began to hope
+for better things. But it was not to be.
+
+The trout here were white, or silvery in colour, more like
+salmon-smolts--none of the deep greens, violets and gold of our home
+fish--and rose extremely shy, coming so short that hardly one in three
+gave a chance of getting fast. It was not that they rolled over the
+flies, or merely "flicked" at them--they simply came so short that,
+unless self-hooked, they were gone almost ere they had come. A dozen
+trout was the result of this day, yet our companion told us he had not,
+during two years, made a better basket. Oh, tantalizing streams and
+provoking troutlets of Biscaya!
+
+Pleasant days, nevertheless, were those spent by this wild riverside.
+The love of sport is strong in our breasts, but it is not the sole, or
+an all-potent factor therein. Other things are strong to charm, and here
+the scenery and accompaniments lacked nothing of beauty and
+interest--the grand hills, not high but severe in jagged skylines and
+escarpments that shone like marble in the sun. The air resounded with
+the music of leaping waters, with the merry carol of Sandpiper and
+gentler warble of Whinchat: and further off the soaring flight of
+Buzzard and Raven lent life to the silent hills.[40] From rock-crannies,
+splashed with the spray of trickling rivulets from above, peeped
+bouquets of gentian and maiden-hair: the stony "haughs" glowed with
+bloom of purple iris and asphodel, anemones and wild geraniums, orchids,
+heaths, ferns, and wild-flowers of a hundred kinds unknown to us.
+
+The weather of the Cantabrian spring-time is strangely variable: every
+day we had spells of sunshine and shower, wind and calm, fog and fair
+alternately, often culminating in a sudden clap of thunder that rolled
+majestically along the deep ravines. Then, for an hour, came down the
+rain in torrents, and we sought the shelter of some village _venta_
+where, for a _peseta_, we fared sumptuously on good white bread and the
+delicious cream-like cheese known as _queso de Burgos_, washed down with
+the rough red wine of Rioja, cheaper than "smallest beer," and most
+refreshing.
+
+In every hamlet hung fishing-nets: every day we saw the "fishermen"
+fixing them, and heard of two-pounders. Yet to us, striving with all the
+skill we possess, appeared none of these leviathans. Nothing we could do
+availed to cajole them--that is, assuming their existence. A basket of
+one to two dozen trout daily, including sundry half-pounders, appeared
+to be the measure of the river's capacity, or of our skill.
+
+Our best basket in this Province of Santander was twenty-eight trout,
+weighing eight and a half pounds, and the best fish a fine trout of just
+over the pound. Him we killed in a deep pool so embedded amidst crags
+and so difficult of access, that it may be doubted whether feathered fly
+had ever before flown over its virgin depths. Our friend rose boldly to
+a small "red palmer": and within a few minutes two more, of hardly
+inferior weight, had joined him in the basket.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+TROUTING IN THE ASTURIAS AND IN LEON.
+
+
+The wide pastoral province of Leon, with its unexplored wilds of the
+Vierzo and the Maragateria, and many another savage region bordering on
+the southern slopes of the Galician and Cantabrian highlands, is
+practically a _terra incognita_ to British sportsman and naturalist.
+Well would Leon repay either of these for the enterprise expended on its
+exploration. Mountain and plain afford shelter for game--large and
+small--of all the kinds native to Spain; while the rivers flowing
+southwards from the Asturian ranges probably afford as good
+trout-fishing as any in the Peninsula.
+
+Our own experiences in Leon were limited, as regards its trouting
+capacities, to a mere flying visit, when we alighted one morning in
+mid-May, at a wayside station in North Leon, tempted to break a
+monotonous journey by the trout-like appearance of a stream that, for
+some distance, had run more or less parallel with the railway.
+
+The country immediately adjacent was not attractive; flat, tawny, and
+arid, with few trees and very partial cultivation. On either bank, at a
+mile or two's distance, rose ranges of low broken hills, gradually
+increasing in height as they closed in upon the river. Here and there
+stood scattered hamlets, all built of the yellowish sun-baked brick
+characteristic of Leon; the houses huddled together, and usually
+enclosed by the remnants of a former wall or fortification.
+
+It was nearly noon ere we reached the waterside, at the head of a long
+stretch of deep, still water, fringed on the opposite shore with canes
+and bulrushes, and well rippled by a strong breeze. The sun-glare was
+intense; and, though the wind enabled us to command the whole water, an
+hour's fishing (with fly) only resulted in the capture of sundry large
+silvery coarse fish, resembling dace, and weighing from half a pound to
+a pound and a quarter, and a few small fry--we imagine, bleak. We
+therefore decided to walk up-stream three or four miles, to the point
+where its course joined one of the hill-ranges just mentioned. Here, in
+many places, abrupt limestone crags formed the farther shore; beneath,
+the stream ran deep, bright, and sparkling, shallowing away to the
+shelving gravel on our shore, and at each bend forming a pretty pool.
+
+For a long time this likely water produced actually nothing, and we
+began to fear that our venture in stopping at this outlandish spot was a
+failure. But as the shadows lengthened and the sun left the water, there
+came a change. The long-expected and welcome sensation of a determined
+"rise" was followed by another and another in quick succession; and in
+the last hour of the day we landed nineteen trout, weighing between
+seven and eight pounds, of which aggregate the three largest accounted
+for one-third.
+
+Fully half the trout killed on this and succeeding days rose to a small
+orange hackle; a bracken-clock, or "coch-y-bondu," as we believe is the
+proper name, being the next favourite. Winged flies should be small, and
+of bright colours, and, in the clear waters of Spain, only the finest
+gut should be used.
+
+Further west, in the Astorga and Ponferrada districts, are probably the
+best streams of Leon; but these we have not had time to visit.
+
+THE ASTURIAS.--This province is to Spain what the Scotch Highlands are
+to England--a
+
+ Land of brown heath and shaggy wood,
+ Land of the mountain and the flood.
+
+From the north, the Asturias may be reached by sea; but on the south the
+only pass through the continuous mountain-ranges which cut off this
+rugged province from Leon and transmontane Spain, is by the _puertos_
+of Vegarada and Piedrafita, which lead into the upland valleys of the
+Pajares mountains, one of the chief strongholds of the Spanish bear, and
+where boar, chamois, and other game are also found.
+
+The extremely abrupt and rugged nature of the river-valleys is, in some
+sense, a serious drawback to the angler. Many a lovely pool or stretch
+of perfect trouting-water are absolutely inaccessible--cut off for ever
+in the depths of some precipitous defile. Broken boulders often impend
+the river's course for miles, and hopelessly obstruct descent. In other
+places the water-side can at length be reached after perilous scrambles
+along rock-ledges, threading the rod through a maze of birch and alder
+branches. And one picks a precarious path downwards with the knowledge
+that, even when reached, the range of fishable water will be limited,
+and the return journey almost worse than the descent.
+
+These hardly-gained pools are, however, worth the trouble of trying.
+For, in proportion to their difficulty of access, so are they neglected
+by the native _pescador_, with all his poaching paraphernalia and
+hateful engines of destruction.
+
+Our first essay proved blank; the season (May) was, perhaps, too early,
+and only a few silvery troutlets rewarded a long day's work. This was a
+small stream, overhung with magnificent chestnuts; but a neighbouring
+and larger river afforded, for Spain, fair sport. The first series of
+pools yielded a dozen trout, averaging half a pound. Then came the usual
+scramble to reach the next fishable bit. While climbing out, over a
+chaos of tumbled boulders, we almost stepped on a big Marten (_Mustela
+martes_, Linn.), which bounded from under foot, up the rocks; then
+turned, and stood chattering savagely at the intruder, her yellow chest
+not twenty yards away. Probably she had her brood hidden in some
+crevice, but we could see nothing of them.
+
+Thus, half fishing, half struggling with geological obstructions, we had
+accumulated a basket of thirty odd trout, when we observed in the glen
+below a stretch of lovely water. There were four pools, each debouching
+into the next in a strong stream that ruffled half the pool below. But
+the river ran in a deep ravine, the descent was worse than ever, and for
+some time it was doubtful if we should ever stand on that virgin shore.
+We succeeded, however; and presently, across the throat of the upper
+"run," extended the cast of stone-fly, black gnat, and orange-red
+spider--possibly the first that ever swept the stream. In a moment we
+were fast in a trout of the first rank, which had seized the upper fly.
+His defence was sullen and strong, slowly moving round the pool; then he
+twice threw himself a clear yard out of water--a grand silver-clad
+trout. The end came in due course, but unhastened, and having no net, no
+risks were run till he rolled over on his glittering side, and could
+safely be towed in shore, and "docked" in a shallow creek. This trout
+(one of our best in Spain) was a thick and shapely fish of rather under
+three pounds, pale in colour, almost silvery, with delicate orange
+blush, which hardly extended to the fins. He was fairly crammed with
+creeper, or larvae of stone-fly (in Spanish, _coco_), yet had fallen a
+victim to the similitude of the perfect insect--the only large fish, by
+the way, killed on this fly, the majority preferring the small
+orange-hackle.
+
+[Illustration: "VANQUISHED."]
+
+In the same pool we killed two more--a half-pounder, with a smaller fish
+on the same cast; while the three lower pools yielded nine trout, three
+averaging a pound apiece, two of three-quarters, and four of minor
+dimensions--making a total for the day of forty-four trout.
+
+This last short hour's work had realized some ten pounds' weight of
+fish--the best sport with the trout-rod the writer ever enjoyed in
+Spain.
+
+
+THE GAME-BIRDS OF THE ASTURIAS.--It may be appropriate, before leaving
+this northern province, to add a few lines on its game-birds, which
+differ greatly from those of the south of Spain.
+
+First comes the Capercaillie, which is spread along the whole Cantabrian
+range, though in no great numbers, and rarely seen in spring, when they
+lie extremely close in the densest thickets of the forests. We only
+raised three or four during many long rambles through the Asturian
+forests in search of Bruin. The Asturian name is "el Faisan."
+
+Ptarmigan are found in the Pyrenees, but do not seem to extend further
+west than the province of Navarre. Manuel de la Torre assured us that
+there was, in the Asturias, a _Perdiz grisa_ which lived exclusively in
+the woods, a tame bird, lying very close, and in autumn flying in bands.
+Could this be the Hazel-grouse? According to Arevalo, that species is
+only found in the Pyrenees.
+
+Our familiar Grey Partridge (a bird entirely unknown in the south) we
+also met with both in the Pyrenees and the Asturias, where it is not
+uncommon; but is said not to pass southward of the great cordillera of
+Leon. In this country, the Grey Partridge is confined to the higher
+regions of the sierras, only coming down with the snow to the _faldas_,
+or foothills, in winter, and is _never_ found on the plains as at home.
+
+One other bird peculiar to this region, though not game, deserves a
+remark: the Great Black Woodpecker (_Picus martius_), which is found
+distributed along all the northern forests. It is, however, very
+scarce--though least so in the Penas de Europa.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+EXPERIENCES WITH EAGLES.
+
+
+I.--FOREST AND PLAIN.
+
+With her vast expanses of sierra and lonely scrub-clad wastes, scarcely
+inhabited save by ill-tended herds of cattle or goats, but abounding in
+wild-life--furred, feathered, and scaled--Spain affords conditions
+peculiarly favourable to raptorial animals. Of the eagle-tribe some
+eight or nine species are recognized as belonging to the Spanish
+avi-fauna--some peculiar to the mountain-region, others to the steppe
+and prairie, as we now proceed to explain. We have ourselves shot all
+the different kinds of eagle, save two, which are comparatively scarce
+and irregular stragglers to the Peninsula--namely, _Haliaeetus albicilla_
+and _Aq. naevia_.
+
+The first of the tribe to attract our attention was the Spanish Imperial
+Eagle (_Aquila adalberti_ of R. Brehm), one of the handsomest of
+European species, a few pairs of which still inhabit most of the wilder
+provinces of Central and Southern Spain, though their numbers in
+Andalucia have been grievously reduced since we first met with them in
+1872. To shoot this bird was long an ambition of the writer, the
+attainment of which cost many a long week of hard work, hard fare, and
+more than one bitter disappointment. All attempts in those earlier days
+to approach the Imperial Eagle on the open plains which form its
+favourite home proved futile; though on many occasions we fell in with
+the bird conspicuously perched, according to its habit during the
+mid-day heats, on some dead tree or the top of a pine. In later years we
+have succeeded in this feat, but at that time the most carefully
+executed "stalk" invariably failed for one reason or another; nor could
+the eagle be beguiled to come to a bait. Nothing remained but to take
+what is perhaps an unfair advantage. On April 16th we found a nest, a
+broad platform of branches built on the very summit of a towering
+_alcornoque_. Beneath this, in a hut of cistus-twigs, a prey to myriad
+mosquitoes, I awaited the eagle's return. Slowly passed some hours of
+torture before she re-appeared, took one wide circuit around, and
+descended with a rush like a whirlwind upon her eyry, completely
+disappearing from view within its ample circumference. This event I had
+not foreseen, and hoped to kill the eagle in the act of alighting. Now
+it only remained to put her off. Gently I removed my boots, crept from
+the hut, and walked round the tree--a mountain of green foliage. From no
+other point was the great nest visible; so I braced up my nerves and
+shouted. There followed a slight rustling; then the huge wings extended,
+and for a single instant I saw, through intervening foliage, the whole
+of the coveted symmetrical form, ere she wheeled back across the tree. A
+No. 1 cartridge crashed through the branches; a shower of leaves and
+black feathers floated in the air--instinctively I felt the blow must be
+mortal, though no vital spot had been presented. Intense was my joy when
+next she appeared, to see the eagle slanting downwards towards the
+earth. There she recovered an even keel; the second barrel, too careless
+perhaps, had no effect, and the great bird slowly flap--flapped away.
+Each moment I watched for her collapse, but she still held on, on,
+across the open, and behind some distant trees was lost to view. Then
+the iron entered my soul, nor was it any solace to hear, some time
+afterwards, that that very afternoon my eagle had been found by a couple
+of _carabineros_; not till a fortnight later was the useless corpse
+recovered.
+
+[Illustration: SPANISH IMPERIAL EAGLE.]
+
+It was the 6th of May before we found another nest in a distant
+_dehesa_--again built on an _alcornoque_ (cork-oak), the highest of a
+clump bordering a small swamp. This eagle sat close, not moving till I
+stood ready beneath. Then she rose to her feet and I shot as she stood
+on the nest. She sprang buoyantly upwards, ignoring a second charge
+placed under the wing as she wheeled back: then soared blindly over
+Felipe, receiving two more cartridges, and after flying some half a mile
+slowly settled down to earth in a series of descending circles. Sending
+Felipe to recover her, I awaited the return of the male; but the sun was
+low on the horizon ere my eyes were gladdened by the sight of his
+majestic flight, directly approaching, and with a rabbit hanging from
+his claws. With quick "yapping" bark, he perched on an outer branch, and
+next moment fell, wing-broken, to the ground.
+
+A magnificent pair they were: their sable-black plumage glossy with
+purplish iridescent sheen and with snow-white shoulders. On the occiput
+a patch of pale gold, the crown being black. The feet and cere of this
+species are pale lemon-yellow; the irides golden, finely reticulated
+with hazel.
+
+This eyry contained two eaglets, clad in white down. We have since had
+many opportunities of observing the breeding habits of this species on
+the wooded plains of Andalucia and Estremadura. The eggs, usually three
+in number, are mostly white, more or less splashed or spotted with faint
+evanescent reddish or brown shades, and are laid about the middle of
+March. The nests of the Imperial Eagle are about four feet across, and
+invariably placed on the extreme summit of a tall tree--cork-oak or
+pine--all projecting twigs being broken off so as to offer no
+obstruction to the sitting bird's view. The nests are flat, lined with
+fresh twigs and green pine-needles, and all around and beneath lie
+strewn the skulls of hares and rabbits--a perfect Golgotha. We have also
+seen the remains of Partridge, Stone-Curlew, Mallard, and wildfowl, but
+never those of reptiles. These large nests are most difficult to get
+into; their position affording no hand-hold above, and from the extent
+to which they overhang, access can only be obtained by a manoeuvre
+analogous to scaling the futtock-shrouds of an old line-of-battle ship.
+
+The Imperial Eagle is exclusively confined to the _plains_--we have
+never seen it in the mountains: its prey consists almost entirely of
+rabbits and partridge: it is also said to kill bustards, but this we
+think improbable, though the bird, no doubt, is powerful enough. Its
+hunting-grounds are the arid, barren _dehesas_ and cistus-wastes--it is
+not seen on the cornlands frequented by bustard. The adults are
+recognizable at a long distance by their black plumage and snow-white
+epaulets--majestic birds of massive, powerful appearance. One also sees
+on the plains other large and powerful eagles of a rich tawny-chestnut
+colour--very handsome objects as they sit in the sunshine on some lofty
+pine.
+
+What all these large tawny eagles are is not quite clear; or rather,
+their precise specific status is not yet settled. Several experienced
+ornithologists scattered throughout the world--Hume, Brooks and Anderson
+in India, Cullen in Turkey, Saunders, Irby and Lord Lilford in
+Spain--have studied these birds, but hitherto the investigations of
+these accomplished naturalists have resulted in qualified, and sometimes
+clashing opinions. Extreme difficulties beset the study of the
+eagle-tribe, for the living subjects refuse to be studied, and resent
+one's most remote propinquity. To go out eagle-shooting is to court
+failure. Then, owing to their prolonged adolescence and slow changes of
+plumage, a single eagle may pass through several distinct phases, each
+more pronounced than those which divide species from species: added to
+which is the further fact that while the genus contains several
+well-defined types, yet its minor forms intergrade with perplexing
+persistency. Without venturing on any dogmatic opinions, we will relate,
+as a small contribution towards their natural history, such facts as
+have come under our notice during many years' observation of the Spanish
+eagles.
+
+To clear the ground, we must first explain that the young of the
+Imperial Eagle are, in their first plumage, of a uniform, rich tawny
+chestnut, or _cafe-au-lait_ colour. We have shot beautiful examples in
+this stage in June and July, when, during the intense mid-day heat, the
+young eagles are wont to seek the shade of the tree whereon they were
+hatched. This plumage continues during two or three years--or more: but
+the original brightness and depth of hue is rapidly lost with age and
+exposure to the southern sun. In a few months, these young eagles have
+faded to an almost colourless, "washed-out" shade that appears almost
+white at a distance.[41]
+
+Their next stage is to acquire the dark plumage of maturity--a
+metamorphosis which probably extends over several years. The black
+feathers growing gradually and irregularly among the light ones, give
+the bird, during this period, a peculiar piebald or spotted
+appearance--(_see_ photo below). It is also worth adding, as a curious
+fact, that many of the feathers of the wing-coverts, scapulars, &c.,
+show _light on one side_ of the shaft, and _dark on the other_. During
+all this protracted adolescence, it has usually been considered that
+these eagles did not breed.
+
+[Illustration: IMPERIAL EAGLE. (SPOTTED STAGE.)]
+
+During the winter months in Andalucia one sees many of these
+tawny-coloured eagles, the majority pale in hue--"washed-out" as Griffon
+Vultures--(undoubtedly young Imperials)--but there are others, less
+numerous, of a rich bright chestnut, and some of these, we think, may
+belong to a different species.
+
+In April, 1883, the writer found a nest of one of these large tawny
+eagles in the distant Corral de la Cita. It was placed on the summit of
+a stone-pine, almost covering the broad, bushy top, and we had an
+excellent view of the old bird, as she rose from the nest about 100
+yards away:--_de las coloradas_, == "one of the tawny kind!" as my
+companion remarked. The place was remote, and night too near to allow of
+our then awaiting her return (though we _should_ have done so at any
+cost), so, after taking the two eggs (large dusky white, quite
+spotless), substituting for them a couple of hard-boiled hen's eggs, and
+setting a circular steel-trap in the nest, we left it. On returning next
+morning there was no sign of the eagle at the nest. After walking all
+round, shouting out, and going up an adjacent sand-ridge which all but
+overlooked it, we were satisfied she was not there, especially as the
+night before she had risen rather wild. Accordingly we prepared to
+ascend; but whilst throwing the rope over the lowest branches, a great
+shadow suddenly glided across the sand beside me, and on looking up,
+there was the great chestnut-coloured eagle slowly flapping from her
+nest within fifteen or twenty yards overhead. Before I could drop the
+rope and run to my gun, the chance was gone; unluckily, however, the
+shot took some effect, and though it failed to stop the eagle, she went
+away badly struck, with one leg hanging down, and never returned. Thus,
+by bad luck, an opportunity of settling a doubtful point was thrown
+away.
+
+[Illustration: TAWNY EAGLE.]
+
+In June of the same year (1883), we obtained a tawny eagle, which we
+then imagined would be a young Imperial of the year, and being only
+winged, the bird was placed in the garden at Jerez, where it lived till
+the autumn of 1885. It was then (at any rate) two and a half years old,
+and possibly much older, yet it had never changed colour at all. The
+whole plumage was rich tawny chestnut, rather lighter beneath, and the
+new autumn feathers, which were growing at the time of the bird's death,
+were also coming bright chestnut, and without a sign of black. This
+eagle, which we now have set-up, has also, to our eye, quite a different
+physical type to _A. adalberti_, old or young, being heavier and more
+massive in build, beak, and claws--indeed, almost vulturine (_see_ photo
+above). The middle toe appears to have four scutellae, against six (one
+rudimentary) in _A. adalberti_; tail above uniform dark brown. In
+captivity it was much noisier, and more _nonchalant_, than the Imperial.
+
+As already mentioned, we have observed these rich-coloured tawny eagles
+on many occasions during the winter months. The forest-guards
+distinguish them from the young Imperial Eagles, saying they were most
+numerous in winter. Casual observation is not, of course, of much value
+on fine points, and we give their opinion for what it may be worth. The
+late Crown Prince Rudolph of Austria also appears to have found a tawny
+eagle nesting in Andalucia ("Sport and Ornithology," p. 491), but did
+not secure the birds.
+
+It seems probable that a large tawny-coloured eagle--whether the African
+_A. rapax_, or otherwise--_does_ breed in Southern Spain, though
+sporadically both as to time and place, the wooded districts around
+Cordova being the most likely locality.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+So far, with slight modifications, we have left this chapter as written
+some little time ago; but, since then, we have had further
+eagle-experiences (in the spring of 1891), which throw some new light on
+the vexed questions referred to. For we have now placed beyond doubt the
+fact that the Spanish Imperial Eagle _does_ breed in--what is considered
+to be--its "immature" dress; but which would probably be more correctly
+expressed by saying that individuals of this species never develope that
+black-and-white plumage which has hitherto been regarded as the
+invariable adult state.
+
+On February 26th we heard of an eagle's nest at a spot called the
+Algaida del Gato, and were assured that, while the female-owner was
+black--_de las negras_--her male partner was _pardo_, _i.e._, tawny. The
+date, it may be noted, is just a month earlier than we had imagined
+these birds usually breed; but on the 28th February this nest certainly
+contained two white eggs; and, as certainly, the male eagle was _tawny_:
+his partner an ordinary black-plumaged adult. The latter we could have
+killed half a dozen times; but the male, realizing, it may be, the
+interesting problem which centred itself on his person, gave us no small
+trouble ere at last he fell to a long and lucky shot on the wing. His
+skin now lies before us--pale tawny chestnut in ground colour, sprinkled
+with darker feathers all over, and with _white shoulders_.
+
+A few days afterwards (March 4th), a second pair were discovered
+breeding on a big stone-pine in a different district. In this case the
+_female_ was tawny, the male black. We watched the pair, with the glass,
+at moderate range, for half an hour, and Manuel de la Torre afterwards
+told us they had passed over his head within twenty yards, leaving no
+doubt as to their respective colours. There was thus no necessity to
+shoot them. As it is we fear we may be blamed, for to exterminate a
+species in order to clear up some obscure fact in its biology is to
+commit a crime under the guise of science; but we have not been guilty
+in this or any other instance of needless slaughter; and, in Spain, be
+it added, eagles are "vermin" upon whose heads a price is set. The few
+shot by us are now valuable and cherished specimens; otherwise they
+might, and probably would have, been uselessly destroyed, the beautiful
+birds left to rot where they fell.
+
+In April we saw a third example in the hands of a naturalist at
+Malaga--a tawny female (without sign of white on shoulders), which we
+were told (and do not doubt) was shot from her nest in that province the
+preceding week.
+
+The veteran Manuel de la Torre, a classic name in Spanish ornithology,
+and one of the keenest and most observant men we ever met, who has spent
+the greater part of his seventy years in the destruction of eagles,
+foxes, wolves, and other _animales daninos_--noxious beasts--laughed at
+our enthusiasm over this "discovery," saying that he had known of the
+fact all his life, and had shot "tawny" Imperials from their nests
+before we were born! He asserted that these eagles do not ever,
+necessarily, attain the black state; they may live 100 years and yet
+not advance beyond the tawny, or "piebald" stages. Good luck and long
+life to this dear old man, whose cheery face and voice and ready guitar
+have been the life and soul of our camp on some wild nights in the
+sierra!
+
+[Illustration: SPANISH IMPERIAL EAGLE. (Adult Male, shot May 6th,
+1883.)]
+
+This discovery leaves the position thus:--The Spanish Imperial Eagle
+_does_ breed indiscriminately, whether in the typical adult livery of
+black and white, or in any of the various stages of mottled and piebald.
+But we are still entitled to the opinion, hereinbefore expressed, that
+there _also_ breeds--though rarely--in Spain a true _tawny_ eagle--_Aq.
+rapax_, or otherwise. The grounds for this opinion are that the bird we
+consider to be the Tawny Eagle is of different type and build, besides
+being of a darker and richer colour--always uniform, whereas the
+Imperial Eagles breeding in the pale plumage are invariably spotted, or
+"marbled."
+
+In leaving the Imperial Eagle we annex weights and dimensions of five
+examples killed by us:--
+
+ Weight. Expanse. Length.
+ Male, adult (tawny) 8-3/4 lbs. 75-1/2 in. 30 in.
+ " " (black) 8-1/2 " 74-3/4 " 29-1/2 "
+ Female " " 9-3/4 " 80-1/2 " 34-3/4 "
+ " " " 10-1/4 " 82 " 36 "
+ " " " 10-1/4 " 82-1/4 " 36 "
+
+Of the Booted Eagle (_Aquila pennata_) and the Serpent-Eagle (_Circaeetus
+gallicus_), both of which are more or less numerous spring-migrants to
+Spain, we have treated elsewhere, and need only add that all our
+specimens of the Booted Eagle (both sexes) are of the _pale_ variety
+with shaded brown back, a broad light bar across either wing, and white,
+streaked breast.
+
+The Spotted Eagle (_Aquila naevia_) we have never personally met with:
+though Arevalo (_Aves de Espana_, p. 58) describes it as not uncommon,
+nesting in crevices of rocks among the wooded mountains, and frequenting
+the rice-swamps of Valencia.
+
+The White-tailed Sea-Eagle (_Haliaeetus albicilla_) according to Spanish
+authorities, is also found on passage and in winter. Manuel de la Torre
+gave us its name as "_Aguila leona_," but we have never seen it in Spain
+at any season.
+
+On January 4th, 1888, we made the acquaintance of another fine species,
+one of the largest of the feathered race, under the following
+circumstances:--We were partridge-shooting, and before our advancing
+line observed soaring over the plain a pair of enormous birds, which we
+took for the largest Imperial Eagles we had ever seen. B. had always
+held that those I had previously shot here (as just related) were of
+small size, and that there existed, on the Andalucian _rega_, eagles of
+twice their dimensions. Here at last we were in presence of a pair of
+these stupendous eagles, and my anxiety to take the offensive--however
+remote or impossible its chance of success--knew no bounds. The pursuit
+of partridge, quail and hare--even the approaching _avero_--faded into
+insignificance, and these huge birds monopolized all attention.
+Presently one--the larger--passed outside the line, and after almost
+interminable aerial sweeps settled slowly down to the summit of a small
+wild-olive. At once we called up one of our wild-fowlers, who, with his
+trained _cabresto_ pony, was close at hand. The pony was divested of
+saddle and bridle, and with only a halter and a cord to his near
+fore-knee--preparations which told him distinctly enough the nature of
+the business in hand--was ready for action. Away we went, Vasquez
+crouching behind the shoulder, myself behind the quarter, and holding
+with my right hand by his tail. By this device we arrived, unnoticed, to
+a range of forty yards--nearer we could not get by reason of a marshy
+creek with steep, slimy banks. I therefore at once despatched the charge
+of treble A, right for the monster's head. The effect was
+unmistakable--he rolled over to the shot, and fell to earth. But those
+huge wings never ceased to work, and a second dose of slugs (on the
+ground) had no visible effect. From mere spasmodic flapping the great
+bird gradually recovered control, and a few seconds later was distinctly
+flying--very low, but still clearly on the wing and departing. For
+nearly a mile he flapped along, never a yard above the scrub--then
+settled, on the very edge of the water. We followed, and when I next
+raised my eyes over the pony's quarter, there, within six yards,
+stretched out flat on the bare mud, lay our victim. His head lay
+prostrate, but his eye still brightly watched us. Hard and impervious to
+shot as I well knew these great raptores to be, I was hardly prepared to
+see him rise again, and could not have believed what followed. Not only
+did he rise on wing, but received two more charges of treble
+A--mould-shot as big as peas--at a range of under twenty yards, without
+wincing, and after that, flew full 200 yards before finally collapsing:
+then at last he fell, stone-dead.
+
+[Illustration: BLACK VULTURE. (Adult Male, shot January 4th, 1888.)]
+
+Our trophy was not an eagle after all! but one of those giant birds, the
+Black Vulture (_Vultur monachus_), measuring a trifle under ten feet in
+expanse of wing, and scaling roughly between two and three stones. I
+need hardly add that I had at once recognized the species on rising to
+fire the first time; and though it was somewhat of a disappointment, it
+at least settled the question respecting these fabulously large eagles.
+This bird proved a magnificent specimen, a male, 9 feet 9 inches across
+the wings: the irides were dark, legs and feet whitish, claws black: the
+cere and bare skin in front of neck bluish colour, tail pointed.[42] The
+whole plumage was deep black-brown, the head covered with short downy
+feathers, and the bird had no offensive smell like the common vultures.
+This species is, indeed, of far nobler aspect than the Griffon, showing
+in life none of the repulsive bare neck of that bird, the neck being
+entirely hidden in the ruff of long lanceolate plumes which surround it,
+and on the wing it has a majestic appearance.
+
+[Illustration: BLACK VULTURE. "GETTING UNDER WEIGH."]
+
+A few days afterwards we had a similar experience with another, which we
+stalked, sitting amongst some rough hummocky ridges: it seems all but
+impossible to kill these huge raptores outright. Their hard muscular
+frames and sinews, tough as steel-wire, appear impervious to shot, and
+unless a pellet chances to take the wing-bone, they will go on, though
+struck in a dozen places. One realizes this on attempting to skin one of
+the larger eagles--an operation not unlike trying to dissect a piano.
+
+The Black Vulture we have never found actually breeding in Andalucia,
+though it does do so: and we have observed single pairs, associated with
+Griffons, in the sierras in May and July. Its chief nesting stronghold
+is in the Castiles, where, in the Sierra de Gredos, we found an eyry
+with young in May. This nest was on a pine. In the south the Black
+Vulture is chiefly a winter bird.
+
+The curious diversity of character displayed by the various raptores
+when captured, deserves a word of notice. At the end of May, after six
+or eight weeks' eagle-hunting, we had about a dozen large birds of prey
+which were kept in a disused room. There was a mighty commotion when any
+one entered--a couple of Serpent-Eagles ceaselessly flapped and
+scuffled, while Booted Eagles showed fight, and Marsh-Harriers, backing
+into convenient corners, stood facing one with outstretched wings, like
+snarling cats all teeth and claws, and shrieking defiance in wailing
+tones. The Kites, on the contrary, might all have been dead, so limp and
+lifeless they lay, flat on the floor, with gaping beak and protruding
+tongue. One winged Kite we kept alive in the grounds at Jerez for years,
+but though practically at liberty, he invariably feigned death or deadly
+sickness when approached. Five minutes afterwards, nevertheless, he was
+quite game to tackle one of our chickens! In the midst of the din and
+flutter sat the Imperial Eagle, silent, motionless, and unconcerned;
+perched on the carcase of a Flamingo, his flat shapely head turned
+slowly as the keen eye followed every movement of the intruder, whose
+presence he otherwise disdained. The Tawny Eagle (above mentioned)
+displayed in captivity even greater _insouciance_ and a nobler demeanour
+than the Imperial, while both birds, heavy and massive as they looked,
+exhibited marvellous agility in pouncing upon the luckless rat who might
+presume to trespass upon their domain and attempt to steal their food.
+
+Such are some of our experiences of the eagles of the Spanish lowlands.
+The Imperial Eagle is, _par excellence_, the monarch of the
+plain--resident throughout the year (though the young are known,
+occasionally, to cross the Pyrenees into France), and in his varied
+phases comparatively common. Next in importance comes a large tawny
+eagle of, as yet, undefined specific rank, which, for the reasons above
+set forth, we consider entitled to a place in the list. Then, in spring,
+come the Booted and Serpent-Eagles from Africa to nest on Spanish soil
+and prey on its abundant reptile-life. But in winter two other species
+descend from their mountain-homes to prey on the game and wildfowl of
+the lowlands. These are the Golden Eagle and Bonelli's Eagle--both
+described more particularly in the next chapter--of which we have shot
+specimens on the plains during the winter months. The two Golden Eagles
+now in the Zoological Gardens were both shot by us in the flat country,
+or _campina_, in the neighbourhood of Jerez de la Frontera--one winged
+as it flew to roost in the _pinales_ of Los Inglesillos, the other by a
+chance shot in the rough, broken country beyond Garciagos.
+
+[Illustration: AT ROOST--SERPENT-EAGLES.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+FURTHER EXPERIENCES WITH EAGLES AND VULTURES.
+
+
+II.--CHIEFLY RELATING TO THE SIERRA.
+
+On a hot May morning we lay beneath the shade of palms and eucalypti in
+the garden at Jerez, watching the gyrations of Kestrels, Swifts, and
+Bee-eaters, and lazily listening to the soft bird-chorus--an infinite,
+space-filling refrain from myriad Nightingales, Serins, and
+Gold-finches--to the spondee of Hoopoe and dactyl of Quail. Presently
+there appeared, far overhead, some half-dozen Griffon Vultures wheeling
+in immense circles, the huge birds dwarfed by the altitude to mere
+specks. Then another stratum, still higher, was detected, and afterwards
+a keen eye distinguished a third, and then a fourth, beyond the average
+range of human vision. How many more tiers of soaring vultures might yet
+occupy the regions of unseen space beyond, cannot be told: but the
+incident serves to illustrate the system on which Nature's great
+scavengers patrol the land. The lower strata we estimated at 800 to
+1,000 yards altitude, and these only, it is probable, are on active
+service, the upper tiers merely standing by, ready to profit by the
+discoveries of all the working parties that may be in sight beneath
+them: for at the enormous elevations of the uppermost birds, it is
+impossible to suppose that even a vulture's eye could detect so small an
+object as, say, a dead goat on the earth.
+
+There is something peculiarly impressive in the appearance of these
+colossal birds and in the automaton-like ease of their flight. Ponderous
+bodies appear suspended in mid-air without visible effort or
+exertion--the great square wings extended, rigid and motionless, filled
+with air like the wands of a wind-mill, enable them to rest on space, to
+soar for hours, as it were, by mere volition. How all the vultures
+manage to find subsistence is a problem, for even in Spain the earth is
+not strewn with carcases, as on a battle-field.
+
+Towards a certain point of the evergreen plain of palmetto, there is a
+visible concentration of soaring forms: thither a string of creaking
+_carros_ has conveyed to their last resting-place some dead horses, the
+victims of Sunday's bull-fight. Thither flock the vultures to hold high
+carnival: and a striking sight it is to watch perhaps forty or fifty, as
+they soar and wheel in as many opposing, concentric circles, gradually
+focussing themselves over the point of attraction. But as they fold
+their wings and gather in a seething mass around the carrion, all that
+was majestic and imposing disappears--as they tear open the flanks and,
+with spluttering growls and gurgles, and flapping of huge wings, dive
+their great bare necks into the innermost penetralia, the spectacle
+changes to the repulsive. Yet, as the only existing system of
+scavengers, they are performing a useful office. Quickly swells the
+crowd: from every quarter come more and more--the heavens seem alive
+with hurrying forms sweeping down to the banquet. As the earlier
+arrivals become satiated, they withdraw a few yards from the revels to
+enjoy the state of rare repletion, perched on a neighbouring tree or
+hillock, where they sit with distended crop, fluffed-out feathers and
+half-closed wings, gorged to the last mouthful, but making room for
+fresh comers, hungry as they had been before. Thus within a few hours
+the luckless horses have found a tomb, and when the Griffons have left
+nothing but bare bones, then another feathered scavenger appears, the
+Neophron, or in Spanish _Quebranta-huesos_, _i.e._, the bone-smasher,
+who sets diligently to work to loosen the ligaments and tear the
+skeleton asunder. Then, one by one, the bones are carried off and broken
+by being dropped from a height upon the rocks, when the fragments are
+devoured: thus the earth is cleansed of corrupting matter.
+
+[Illustration: Plate XXIV.
+
+A VULTURES' BANQUET.
+
+Page 200.]
+
+Vultures, though found all over Spain--whether in mountain, marsh, or
+plain--breed only in the sierras. We have observed them in every
+province from Guipuzcoa to Galicia, and from Asturias to Mediterranean;
+but nowhere do they so greatly abound as in Andalucia, and especially in
+that wild mountain-region which forms the southernmost apex of Europe.
+Here they may fairly be said to swarm, and in our many campaigns in
+these sierras we have had abundant opportunities of observing them "at
+home." Here the Griffon Vultures build their broad flat nests on shelves
+and ledges of the crags, or in caves in the face of sheer walls of rock,
+many of which exceed 2,000 feet in vertical altitude. The little town of
+Grazalema is perched on the verge of one of these stupendous _tajos_;
+from the window of the _posada_ one can drop a pebble to invisible
+depths, midway down which a colony of _Buitres_ have had their eyries
+from time immemorial. The hill-villages of Arcos, El Bosque, Villa
+Martin, and Bornos, all present similar instances--man seeking the
+highest apex, the vultures its middle heights, beyond reach of bullet
+from above or below. Ronda, too, has its _tajo_, but we do not recollect
+seeing any vultures breeding actually beneath the town.
+
+The Griffons commence repairing their nests as early as January--we have
+watched them carrying claw-fulls of grass and cut branches from places
+where charcoal-burners had been lopping the trees, on January 21st; a
+single large white egg is laid in February, incubation lasts forty days,
+and a naked, blue-skinned chick is hatched early in April. The young
+vultures are of extremely slow growth, spending full three months in the
+nest. By mid-May they are as big as Guinea-fowls: ungainly-looking
+creatures, all crop and maw, with feathers beginning to show through the
+thick white down.
+
+[Illustration: GRIFFON VULTURE AND NEST. (Puerta de Palomas.)]
+
+[Illustration: STRANGE NEIGHBOURS.]
+
+Palomas, whose crags were tenanted by numerous Griffons, and the strange
+growls made by them on returning to their eyries was often the first
+sound heard on awakening. Once at that period (May) we were imprisoned
+in the Sierra de Ubrique, both our animals having fallen lame through
+loss of shoes, and it was with no small difficulty we eventually
+extricated ourselves from the heart of those rugged, pathless mountains.
+During four days and nights we were encamped in the wild pass of the
+Puerta de at daybreak, in our roofless bedroom among the boulders,
+mingled with the awakening notes of the Blue-thrush and Alpine chough.
+These nests proved to be quite the easiest of access we ever saw--the
+cliffs being rather a chaotic jumble of big rocks and monoliths than
+crags proper; and by clambering over these we reached sixteen
+nests--many very slight affairs, with bare rock projecting through the
+scanty structure--of which only two held more than a single poult. The
+nests of the Griffon--albeit malodorous--are always cleanly. These
+vultures feed their young exclusively on half-digested food which they
+disgorge from their own crops--hence there is no carrion or putrefying
+matter lying about, as is the case at the nests of the Neophron and
+Lammergeyer. It is the male vulture only that, at this season,
+undertakes lengthened journeys into the plains and low-lands, remaining
+absent for days together in search of supplies, and returning crop-full
+of unsavoury store. The vultures seen on the distant plains in spring
+are all males, the females remaining at or near their nests. The sketch
+on page 209 represents a curious scene. On the treeless plains of the
+Isla Mayor many vultures roost (in April) on a solitary clump of dead
+_encinas_, the lower branches and forks of which are also occupied by
+the nests of five or six pairs of White Storks.
+
+Three of these eyries were situate on abrupt, detached stacks of rock,
+so easily accessible that we almost "walked" into them. Some years
+afterwards, passing through this sierra on March 1st, we found the three
+stacks occupied as before, each nest containing a single egg.
+
+During this scramble we came suddenly upon a pair of Eagle-Owls,
+solemnly dreaming away the hours in a deep cavern; but, being in an
+awkward position on the crag-face, could not spare a hand to secure
+them. These caverns were also occupied by Choughs and Rock-Martins
+(_Cotyle rupestris_), the latter sharing a cave with hundreds of
+bats.[43]
+
+Eventually, after dragging the lame beasts some twenty miles, we got
+clear of the sierra, but found that our absence had caused much anxiety
+at Jerez. On the outward ride, it had so chanced, we were present at a
+sad accident by which two men and their nine mules lost their lives,
+while attempting to cross the swollen Guadalete at the Barca Florida.
+Consequently we did not attempt the ford, and only reached the sierra
+after a long detour: but news of the accident having reached Jerez, and
+our disappearance being unluckily attributed thereto, the curious result
+was that the first person we met on the _vega_ of Guadalete was honest
+old Blas, all solemn and dejected, as he endeavoured, by watching the
+flight of the vultures, to discover our remains!
+
+The beautiful crags of Zurita and the Agredera impending our historic
+Guadalete, and lying about a dozen miles from Jerez, are a favourite
+spring ride. In April their lower slopes are resplendent with acres of
+rhododendrons just bursting into bloom, crimson peonies peep from arid
+nooks, and the riverside is fringed with laurestinus and myrtle,
+oleanders, sallows and palmetto, all resonant with the melody of
+nightingales. To these crags the Neophron, or Egyptian Vulture, yearly
+resorts, and six or eight nests may be found in a day's ramble, all
+placed in holes or fissures of the cliff, which, from its rottenness and
+overhung form, is far from easy to scale. Nor is a Neophron's eyry a
+very delectable spot when reached; for, handsome as he looks on wing,
+this vulture is one of the foulest of feeders. The stench at his abode
+is overpowering; all around lies carrion in every stage of corruption,
+while swarms of loathsome flies rise and buzz heavily around the
+intruder. The nest itself is made of rags and wool--no sticks--and the
+two eggs, often as richly coloured as a Peregrine's, are laid early in
+April. Though the food of the Neophron is mostly bones, _ordure_, and
+garbage, yet it will, exceptionally, take living creatures; a male, shot
+on April 19th, when returning to his nest, carried in his beak the yet
+writhing remains of a small snake. In a rather low part of this range of
+crags (its highest point, the Agredera peak, is 1,000 feet plumb) a
+pair of Golden Eagles had their nest, or rather two nests, which they
+used alternately. The birds did not appear, but we saw the nests,
+immense masses of sticks conspicuously protruding from crevices in the
+crag, about forty yards apart. These cliffs are also tenanted by a
+colony of Genets.
+
+In Andalucia, as in Eastern Europe, the Neophron occasionally nests upon
+trees. In the lovely, park-like country half a day's ride eastward of
+Jerez, several pairs breed yearly on high _encinas_, or ilex. Here, in
+spring, we have seen the old vultures on the nest, and in July have
+observed big young--dark brown fellows--perched on adjoining branches.
+For instance:--
+
+_April 10th, 1891._--Examined to-day three Neophrons' nests on
+ilex-trees at the Encinar del Visco--broad, solid structures, twice as
+large as those of the Kites, and warmly lined with cows'-hair, wool, &c.
+Owing to the backward season, there were no eggs, though in 1883 we took
+two clutches (each two eggs) on same date.[44]
+
+[Illustration: Plate XXV.
+
+"WHERE THE CARCASE IS."
+
+Page 213.]
+
+One afternoon in the early part of July, 1872--a period when Andalucia
+was seething with revolution and communistic ideas--a young Golden Eagle
+was brought in by Jose Larrios, a man we often employed in sport and
+country campaigns--the same Jose whose dare-devil escapade with a bull
+we have already related (see p. 10). This eaglet he had brought from the
+Sierra de Alcala de los Gazules, nearly forty miles distant, where his
+brothers held a small mountain-farm; and there remained, he said,
+another fledgeling in the eyrie. The writer, in those early days, had
+not succeeded in shooting the Royal Eagle, and the ambition to do so was
+intense, despite the difficulty of the communists. Two days before we
+had returned from a fortnight's expedition to the westward, and when
+riding towards Jerez were stopped by a military cordon who invested the
+town and demanded our credentials. These being satisfactory, the officer
+in command informed us that street-fighting was taking place, and
+detained us till evening, when he kindly furnished us with an escort. We
+found that two days previously the city had been seized by an armed mob,
+thousands strong, who by a sudden _coup_ had gained possession of the
+public buildings and barricaded the streets. On the arrival of a troop
+of cavalry from Seville the mutineers incontinently fled, save a mere
+handful of the bolder spirits, who stood to their improvised defences to
+the last, and were finally shot down within the church of San Juan,
+wherein they had sought refuge. This revolution thus crumbled to
+nothing, though at one time it threatened to exceed in violence that of
+three years before (1869), when the barricades were taken at the point
+of the bayonet, and hundreds of insurgents were shot down in the streets
+of Jerez.
+
+For the moment danger was past, and the city, within the armed cordon,
+restored to normal condition, though outside the state of the adjacent
+country was not certain. Keenness to kill the Royal Eagle of the sierras
+was paramount, and at midnight Jose and I set out from La Compania, the
+old Jesuit convent which was then our home, and traversing the dark
+streets and narrow, sandy lanes beyond, we were soon clear of the town,
+and by daylight had reached the ford of the Alamillo, where we crossed
+the Guadalete, and were breakfasting at 6.30 in the hill-village of
+Paterna--five leagues. Early in the afternoon we completed the twelve
+leagues and reached the little _cortijo_ of Jautor, the abode of Jose's
+two brothers, who agreed to take us to the eagle's nest that evening.
+Jautor is surrounded by towering sierras, and we proceeded on foot up a
+rough goat-track, choked with strong brushwood, and leading up the steep
+southern acclivity. After climbing and walking about two hours, we
+reached the nest, a huge pile of sticks surmounting an oak-tree which
+hung over a deep _garganta_ or mountain-ravine. What was my vexation to
+find, after eighteen hours' labour, that it was empty! On one side lay
+part of the leg of a kid, and about half a hare, both quite fresh, but
+the eaglet was gone; and though we waited till dusk on the chance of the
+old bird returning, we saw nothing, and had to retrace our weary steps,
+sticking and stumbling in the dark, to the shepherds' hut, deadbeat and
+disappointed.
+
+The _choza_ was a mere hut built of long _canas_ or reeds, in the form
+of an extinguisher, the interior being circular, some 15ft. in diameter,
+occupied by many goats, poultry, and cats--not to mention minor
+inhabitants, and with a wood fire smouldering in the centre. I had
+hardly coiled myself in my rug and laid down to sleep on the low mud
+settee which ran round the back of the den, when a furious outburst of
+barking took place among the numerous dogs which lay sleeping round the
+fire. The goatherd opened the door, and there entered an old man,
+bronze-visaged and wiry, leading behind him a donkey. He was a smuggler,
+and his packs, crammed with contraband of infinite variety, were soon
+deposited on the floor, and the donkey hobbled and turned out to find
+bed and breakfast where it might. Then the _cerrones_ were unpacked, and
+their multifarious contents displayed on the mud floor--pins, needles
+and scissors, buttons, and bobbins of thread, tobacco, tape, and sundry
+kinds of coloured cloth and bright ribbons. The latter at once "fetched"
+the feminine portion of the community--alas! for the chances of sleep
+for the weary--female nature is everywhere the same, even in the _choza_
+of a goatherd buried amidst these lonely sierras, and bargaining and
+chatter continued well-nigh throughout the livelong night.
+
+The simple peasants, though unable to comprehend my object, were
+sincerely distressed at our failure; and next morning, while we were
+busy cooking our breakfast under the shade of a spreading laurestinus,
+came to say there was another eagle's nest on the opposite side of the
+valley. They had kindly sent a lad at daybreak to make inquiries at a
+neighbouring farm, four miles distant. Thither accordingly we set out,
+riding for several miles till the ascent became so abrupt, and
+intercepted with brushwood, that it was necessary to picket the horses,
+leaving them in charge of a lad, and to proceed on foot. We crossed the
+ridge of the sierra and entered an upland valley beyond, where, in a
+tall poplar, standing slightly apart, was a rather small nest containing
+a single eaglet. I must have fallen asleep at my post, for presently
+Jose, who had left me in ambush, aroused me to say that the eagle had
+returned, fed her young, and departed! While we were talking the female
+flew overhead, and instantly catching sight of us, with a scream dropped
+a rabbit she was carrying, and soared heavenwards. My shot dropped her
+stone-dead, and she fell within a few yards of her victim--a female of
+the Serpent-Eagle, a species well known on the wooded plains, but which
+we had hardly expected to find in the mountains. We have related this
+incident because there followed one of the most singular occurrences
+that have happened within our ornithological experiences. On being
+skinned, this eagle was found to contain the almost entire remains of a
+young eagle, which, from its feathered tarsi and general appearance, was
+certainly a nestling Golden Eagle--the counterpart, perhaps the brother,
+of the one Jose had already brought alive to Jerez! We can only state
+the bare fact, as above, and surmise that the youngster was yesterday
+the occupant of the eyrie we had travelled so far to despoil, and that
+the actual and would-be destroyers had thus accidentally come in
+collision.
+
+About a league further the valley terminated in a fine amphitheatre of
+crags, showing remarkably bold and abrupt escarpments. The highest part
+was occupied by a colony of Griffons, and while resting for an hour or
+so in a niche of this mountain rampart, I shot four of the great birds.
+Collectively they measured across the expanded wings some thirty-eight
+feet, and though we had no means of weighing them, estimated them at
+about forty pounds apiece. One of the vultures shot here, a fine bird
+with bushy white frill, the peasants asserted to be between 300 and 400
+years old, though how they could tell is a mystery. This bird was killed
+with ball on the wing. The smell of Griffon Vultures when shot is strong
+and most offensive: their claws and long feathers are always much
+abraded by attrition on the rocks, and their whole plumage has a worn
+and faded appearance, in harmony with the decay and death in which they
+rejoice.
+
+The young vultures were at last (July 8th) on the wing, having spent
+some three months in the nests:[45] they are now of a clear, bright
+cinnamon colour, much handsomer than the adults, each feather being
+shaded; and one shot to-day measured between eight and nine feet in
+expanse of wing.
+
+Our lofty perch commanded a grand mountain landscape--sierras extending
+range beyond range in swelling stony masses or jagged sky-lines. Alpine
+Swifts dashed overhead; Blackchats and Blue Rock-Thrushes flitted among
+the crags, and, with the great vultures soaring above and below,
+afforded some interesting scenes. The mid-day heat was intense, and we
+had a rough tramp down to the horses through broken ground and thick
+young wood, where we disturbed a Roe and saw many traces of others. It
+was after dark when we reached a miserable wayside venta, where,
+alongside half a dozen snoring peasants and tormented by a million
+fleas, we passed the night on the ground.
+
+[Illustration: BONELLI'S EAGLE. (Adult Female, shot July 10th, 1872.)]
+
+Returning homewards next morning, while we were passing through the
+outlying spurs or foothills of the sierra, a pair of large dark eagles
+were observed hunting a scrub-covered ridge. The larger of the two
+presently swept down upon an unlucky rabbit and forthwith commenced to
+devour it, the male perching on a stump hard by. They were favourably
+situate for a stalk, and by riding round in a wide circuit I gained the
+reverse of the ridge. On creeping forward to my marks, however, I could
+at first see nothing--only a few palmetto bushes some distance down the
+slope. Having crawled to these, I perceived the eagle busily tearing up
+her prey in a slight hollow of the ground. She was only forty yards
+away, yet the sitting shot (broadside on) produced no effect. A "green
+wire-cartridge, No. 1" from the left, broke a wing as she rose, and,
+after some little trouble, she was secured. She proved to be a Bonelli's
+Eagle (_Aquila bonellii_), a perfect adult specimen, dark brown above,
+with white breast boldly streaked and splashed with black: the bushy
+"stockings" and warm reddish-brown _tarsi_ contrasting with the long
+white "apron" which overlapped them. (_See photo._)
+
+Thus occurred--over twenty years ago--our first introduction to
+Bonelli's Eagle: since then we have met with them frequently in the
+southern sierras, in the Castiles, and once in the Biscayan Provinces.
+It is, in fact, the commonest mountain-breeding eagle in Spain, and is
+easily recognizable by its short, dappled wings, and by the peculiar
+feature that the _middle_ of the back is white--thus, if seen from
+above, the bird appears to have a large white spot between the wings.
+
+In former days, the hill-peasants assert that it bred in quite low
+rocks, and several such abandoned eyries have been pointed out to us:
+but we have only seen its nest in the most stupendous rock-walls--places
+that make one's flesh creep to survey. The two eggs, usually white, but
+occasionally splashed or spotted, are laid in the early days of
+February--we have watched these eagles repairing their nest at
+Christmas. The young in first plumage, like those of the Imperial Eagle,
+are of a chestnut-tawny hue. The claws of Bonelli's Eagle are remarkably
+long and powerful, and its chief prey consists of hares, rabbits, and
+other game. Hares it appears unable to carry up _whole_ to its eyry on
+the heights, tearing them into halves, and birds found in its nest are
+usually headless.
+
+The Golden Eagle also breeds in all the mountain-regions of Spain, both
+in high rocks and occasionally (as above mentioned) on trees. Its nest
+is often an enormous structure--quite a cartload of sticks.
+
+The Golden and Bonelli's Eagles are strictly denizens of the mountains:
+but in autumn both species descend to the plains and marismas in search
+of prey. On more than one occasion, while shooting on the lowlands in
+winter, we have secured a Golden Eagle as he flew to roost in the
+pine-woods: and on Nov. 29th, some years ago, while flight-shooting, a
+Bonelli's Eagle was so intent on the capture of a winged Ruddy Sheldrake
+(_Tadorna rutila_) which had fallen to a neighbouring gun, as almost to
+fly into the writer's _puesto_. This eagle was in the act of lifting
+the heavy duck off the water when a charge of big shot cut him down.
+
+Our old _cazador_, Felipe, who has since become keeper on a rabbit and
+partridge preserve fully twenty miles from the nearest point of the
+sierra, told us that so many eagles come down to prey on his rabbits
+during the months of November and December that during the preceding
+season he had killed over thirty. Felipe added that they were mostly
+Golden and Bonelli's Eagles (_Aguila perdicera_ he called the latter),
+with a few Serpent-Eagles earlier in the autumn. At the time of our
+visit (January) most of the eagles had retired to the sierras to breed:
+but a few days afterwards Felipe rode in with a cargo which sorely
+puzzled the officials of the _consumos_ (octroi), for under either arm
+he bore an eagle, and in a sack on his back were two immense wild-cats!
+The eagles were _A. chrysaeetus_, and an immature, tawny-breasted
+Bonelli.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+ON SPANISH AGRICULTURE.
+
+
+I.--CEREALS, GREEN CROPS, ETC.
+
+Around Spanish agriculture, as around other Iberian industries, hangs a
+cloud of almost Oriental apathy. A land which might be one of the
+granaries of Europe is so neglected that, even with an import duty on
+corn, it is barely self-supporting--indeed, during 1889, Spain had to
+pay upwards of one million sterling for imported wheat.
+
+Since the fall of Moorish dominion, the population of Andalucia has
+fallen to less than half; large areas which in Moorish days were smiling
+corn-lands, to-day lie barren and unproductive, choked with
+brushwood--the great southern _despoblados_, or deserts.
+
+Nearly one-half the entire land of Spain (to be exact, 45.8 per cent.)
+is without cultivation of any kind; and of the rest, the productive
+powers are but half utilized. The yield of the best land in a favourable
+season rarely reaches forty bushels per acre, and the average, taking
+one year with another, may be placed at twenty; while in Northumberland
+thirty bushels is an average, and fifty a not infrequent yield.
+
+The three chief agricultural products of Spain are corn, oil, and
+wine--of the latter, we treat more particularly in another chapter. The
+corn-farms--each usually including a certain proportion of
+olive-wood--extend from four or five hundred acres up to large holdings
+of as many thousand; and, as a rule, are cultivated by their
+non-resident owners, through a steward.[46]
+
+[Illustration: Plate XXVI.
+
+PLOUGHING WITH OXEN.
+
+Page 221.]
+
+Even in the case of rented land, the farmer seldom himself lives on his
+holding, but entrusts the management to an agent, while he resides in
+his town house. Neither landowner nor farmer live in the country.
+
+This deep-rooted antipathy to a country-life is one of the many causes
+of the decrepitude of Spanish agriculture, among which may be specified
+the following:--
+
+1.--The custom of absenteeism.
+
+2.--The antiquated system of tillage.
+
+3.--The absence of woods and plantations, the beneficial effects of
+which on climate and atmosphere are specially necessary in this hot, dry
+country. The comparatively small forest-areas are, in many parts, as
+previously stated, being rapidly reduced by the hatchet of the
+charcoal-burner.
+
+4.--The neglect of irrigation. In wet winters, the low-lying lands are
+flooded, and the whole country is water-logged; in summer the reverse is
+the case--moisture is non-existent, every green thing is burnt up, yet
+no attempt is made to direct and conserve the rain-supplies, albeit the
+remains of the aqueducts and irrigation-works of Roman and Moor are ever
+present to suggest the silent lesson of former foresight and prosperity.
+
+Of a total area of some forty-four and a half million acres under
+cultivation, _less than two_ millions are irrigated (_regadio_), leaving
+forty-two and a half million acres of "dry lands" (_secano_).
+
+The following table forms an interesting commentary--to those who can
+endure statistics--on the state of agriculture in Spain. It shows the
+exact proportion of irrigated and non-irrigated land under each crop,
+&c. The figures represent "_fanegas_" which are, roughly, equivalent to
+acres.
+
+ Crop or Condition. Irrigated. Dry Lands.
+ (_Regadio._) (_Secano._)
+
+ Garden produce, vegetables, &c. 245,798 --
+ Fruit-trees 58,095 384,642
+ Corn and seeds 1,139,964 18,983,410
+ Vines 66,859 2,121,070
+ Olive-woods 76,538 1,181,386
+ Meadow 291,240 842,319
+ Salt-pans 29,174 --
+ Pasturage -- 3,963,538
+ Groves and marshy dells (_alamedas y sotos_) -- 130,570
+ Brushwood (_monte, alto y bajo_) -- 7,279,346
+ Winter grazings (_eriales con pastos_) -- 5,193,331
+ Threshing-grounds, &c. (_eras y canteras_) -- 48,277
+ Non-productive -- 2,452,239
+ __________ __________
+ Total 1,907,168 42,580,148
+
+Oriental customs survive in the hiring of labour, both for field and
+vineyard. Men are not employed permanently--only "taken on" as occasion
+requires. A hiring-place is the feature of Spanish rural towns--the
+Plaza, or public square, usually serving the purpose. Here, at all
+hours, but notably at early morn and sunset, stand groups of swarthy
+labourers, waiting for hire, and contentedly smoking their cigarettes
+till some _capataz_, or foreman, comes to terms with them.
+
+Corn and wine are cultivated by distinct classes of labourers--those for
+the vineyard, superior workmen, gaining thrice the pay of the others. In
+the vineyards the men receive the equivalent of three francs a day, with
+oil and vinegar--important items in a hot country--while the corn-farmer
+only pays one franc, with bread and oil.
+
+The only permanent hands at a vineyard are the capataz and his
+assistant, the duties of the latter being to bring bread from the town
+on his pannier-mule, and water from the best or nearest well in those
+cool earthen pitchers called _cantaros_. Water is almost as important as
+food. Among the poor it is the national drink--the quality produced by
+each well is known and often discussed. Andalucians are critical judges
+of water, classing it as _mala_, bad, unwholesome; _gorda_, turbid or
+flavoured; _regular_, pretty good, and _agua rica_, the best of bright
+sparkling water. In praising his native hamlet, the first point with a
+Spanish peasant will be "_the water there is good_." Water, however, be
+it _gorda_ or _rica_, they must have; and wherever on glowing plain or
+calcined hill-side one sees a gang of labourers gently scratching the
+earth with tiny hoe, there also are sure to be lying those porous,
+amphora-shaped _cantaros_ full of water, ice-cold, albeit a tropical sun
+has for hours impinged vertically on their porous sides. Oh, how
+delicious a draught can be enjoyed from those rude, old-world vessels
+surely none but thirst-stricken labourer under Spanish summer sun--be he
+peasant or bustard-shooter--can ever fully realize!
+
+At the cortijo, or corn-farm, are four or five permanent employes--the
+steward, the bread-maker, and the tenders of the working oxen. All the
+rest of the labourers--men or women--are hired temporarily as required.
+Herdsmen and shepherds we do not include, as these do not live at the
+farm, but in some reed-built _choza_, or other rough shelter hard by
+their flocks. Hence it will be seen that the class of labour employed on
+arable land is of the lowest--there is none of the inducement to steady
+industry begotten of permanent place. At the vineyards, in addition to
+the higher rate of wage, the food supplied is also much superior. This
+industry, in short, absorbs the pick of the labour-market. No women are
+employed in the vineyards, nor allowed to touch a vine, though on the
+farms many are engaged for such work as hoeing and weeding.
+
+To become the capataz of a vineyard is the highest ambition of the
+labourer. To go into the market-place and hire, instead of standing
+there to be hired, are obviously very different things. It implies,
+besides, permanent wages at increased rate, without manual work to do,
+for the capataz only orders.
+
+He hires the labourers required, often with an eye to his own advantage.
+The master never sees the men engaged: there is no check on the honesty
+of the agent, but considerable variation in the quality of the hired.
+The old, the halt and lame, if friends of the capataz, receive the same
+pay as the young and strong. Although all may go forth into the vineyard
+at the seventh hour, there is yet ground for doubting the substantial
+justice of the nineteenth-century capataz as there was in olden days of
+Bible history.
+
+[Illustration: WOODEN PLOUGHSHARE.]
+
+These and other minor abuses will not be remedied till landowner and
+farmer live on their properties--a thing unknown in Spain. The farmer,
+or _labrador_--as with grotesque incongruity he styles himself--lives in
+his cool and luxurious mansion in the town, receiving visits every few
+days from his steward; but months go by, even years, between his rare
+visits to the farm. The land is, as a rule, his own, and being a man of
+means, so long as things go on fairly, and his sacks of corn or casks of
+wine arrive in town in due season, and without excessive pillage, he is
+content.
+
+Most of the farms being held by capitalists, the farmer can withstand
+the loss of a few bad years: and when a good one comes--they calculate
+one fat year to four lean--all losses are recouped and a large balance
+to the good rewards his patience.
+
+[Illustration: Plate XXVII.
+
+THE HARVEST-FIELD.
+
+Page 225.]
+
+Ploughing, or what passes muster as such--a tickling of the surface by
+tiny wooden ploughshare identical with those of Roman days, drawn by
+yokes of tardy-plodding oxen--takes place in autumn. Wheat is sown in
+December, the seed scattered broadcast, and one-third of the land laid
+fallow each year. The fallows (_manchones_) in spring produce
+wildernesses of weeds, as tall and rank as the corn itself, and gorgeous
+with wild-flowers--Elysian fields for the bustards, which revel amidst
+the ripening seeds and legions of locusts and grasshoppers. Here whole
+acres glow with crimson trefoil, contrasting with the blue borage and
+millions of convolvuli: there are lilies and balsams, asphodel, iris,
+and narcissi of every hue--but it is idle to attempt to describe the
+unspeakable floral beauties of the Spanish _manchon_.
+
+The fallows are not, however, left to waste their substance entirely on
+weeds and wild-flowers, for they form the best spring-grazing grounds
+for cattle, and thus, too, receive a certain allowance of manure.
+
+One's patience is exercised to watch the tardy oxen creeping along those
+league-long furrows! Even in our English corn-lands, in the fifty-acre
+fields of Norfolk or Northumberland, there appears to our non-technical
+eyes a grievous disproportion between the work to be done and the means
+employed, albeit a dozen stout draughts may be at work in a single
+field. Here, where the "field" stretches away unbroken by fence or hedge
+to the horizon, a day's journey in either direction for those plodding
+oxen, the task truly appears more hopeless than the labours of Sisyphus.
+Not even on the prairies of Western America can they boast a longer
+furrow than can be traced on these plains of tawny, treeless Spain. Well
+may the ploughman seek, by chanting old-time ditties, to avoid utter
+vacuity of mind.
+
+In June and July the harvest is gathered in--no musical rattle of
+reaper, for the sickle still holds its place: and over the breadth of
+fallen swathe soar hawks of every sort and size, preying on the locusts
+and other large insects and reptiles now deprived of their accustomed
+covert.
+
+Then follows the threshing of the corn, an operation which is carried on
+with the primitive simplicity of the patriarchs of old--perhaps on
+precisely the same lines. The sheaves are brought from the stubble on
+creaking bullock-carts, and thrown on the _era_, or threshing-ground, a
+hardened level space adjoining the farm. Here it is threshed--or rather,
+trodden out under foot by the _yeguas_--brood-mares, a team of which are
+kept briskly trotting over the circle of outstrewn sheaves, driven on by
+a man who stands in the centre. With a long whip and the skill of a
+circus manager, he drives the mares in circles, round and round--this is
+the only duty asked of the _yeguas_ all the year, except that of
+maternity. Amidst clouds of dust and heat the sweating animals are urged
+on till the corn and brittle straw is trodden into finest chaff. Then
+the mares are rested, the grain and chaff pushed aside to make room for
+fresh sheaves, and the operation is repeated till all the produce has
+been trodden out.
+
+The next process is to throw the broken corn high in air with broad
+wooden shovels. The wind serves to separate the grain from the chaff,
+the former falling in heaps on the earth, while the lighter material
+drifts away to leeward. The grain is gathered into sacks, loaded upon
+donkeys, and away goes the team to the owner's granary in the town: as
+many as three score, and more, of patient _borricos_ may often at this
+season be seen plodding along the dusty byeway. Similarly one sees, at
+the same season, the casks of newly-pressed wine being jolted along on
+bullock-carts towards the town, along rough roads or tracks that will
+not be required again till the same traffic occurs after the next year's
+vintage.
+
+The broken straw and chaff is stored in large stacks, to form the staple
+food for horses and cattle during the winter: and is indeed of good
+quality, affording as much nutriment as the best hay, of which none is
+grown in this southern land.[47]
+
+[Illustration: Plate XXVIII.
+
+THRESHING THE CORN WITH YEGUAS (MARES).
+
+Page 226.]
+
+The corn goes to the owner's granary, the wine to his bodega, and all is
+soon safely housed within the city walls. Nothing, beyond actual
+necessaries, is left in the country.
+
+The antipathy evinced by Spaniards towards the country is a curious
+feature of this southern life. No Spaniard, rich or poor, will remain in
+the country for a single night, even in the green and glorious
+spring-time when the Andalucian _vegas_ revel in richest charm to eye
+and ear. The labourers whose work takes them into the _campo_ do their
+best to get back by night: even the poorest prefer a walk of several
+miles, morning and evening, rather than remain overnight amidst rustic
+scenes. Centuries of former insecurity may explain this: but now no
+present cause can be assigned beyond the force of habit, and perhaps the
+fear of being overtaken by sudden illness or death beyond the reach of
+priest--in which case the last rites of religion might not be available.
+
+Whatever be the cause, the country gentleman, the country parson and
+doctor, Hodge and rural population generally, are unknown in Spain. The
+landowner hies him townwards at night to his gossip, his _paseo_ and his
+favourite game of _tresillo_ at the casino--the workman to his village,
+his wife and bairns in the humble tenement he proudly calls his _casa_.
+Spain is a land of customs and accepted traditions--be they good or bad.
+For centuries no one has sought to introduce a novelty--say a taste for
+rural life, though the conditions for its enjoyment exist here as
+favourably, at least, as elsewhere. So far as we can judge, the
+vesper-bell will continue for all time to gather in the natives to the
+cities as rookeries unite their flocks when every sun goes down.
+
+This, of course, does not apply to farmsteads remote from town or
+village, where labourers and herdsmen perforce live as in a rural
+fortress. It is not surprising that, with the gregarious instincts of
+the Spanish people, the lot of such men should be despised; and that
+there should arise in these unhappy groups, isolated for weeks from kith
+and kin, and with the barest means of subsistence, that spirit of
+discontent which resulted in 1883 in the _mano negra_, and this year in
+that anarchical furor which, on both occasions, was expiated on the
+scaffold.
+
+Agriculture in Spain is thus deprived of that _gracia_ which in other
+lands distinguishes it from other commercial pursuits. It is devoid of
+that loving, homely interest that in England attaches to it, making the
+cultivation of the soil--at least when conducted (willingly) by the
+landowner--something of a recreation or "labour of love." Here, nothing
+beyond elementary and imperative operations are carried on--those which
+a rule-of-thumb experience has shown to give fairly good results with a
+minimum of trouble. Experiments are things unknown. There is a settled
+conviction among the agricultural class that improvement is impossible,
+that their patriarchal system represents perfection. Reward is looked
+for rather in a twenty or thirty-fold return once in every four or five
+years by luck of favouring climatic conditions, than sought to be
+assured by skill and the adoption of modern modes of tillage.
+
+Corn-growing nevertheless does pay in Spain, owing to the import-duty on
+foreign grain, which ensures a profit to the home-producer. But fortunes
+realized on the _cortijo_ are always ascribed rather to a run of good
+luck than to any other specific cause.
+
+He would be a bold man who departed from the traditional systems in
+vogue since time began, in this land where "whatever is is best." And a
+strange fatality does await experimental changes. The very soil seems to
+repel innovation. A firm of practical English agriculturists failed
+signally some thirty years ago, and one still hears it satirically told
+how the deep-searching iron ploughshares from Inglaterra left offended
+fields which for years afterwards refused to yield a crop.
+
+[Illustration: Plate XXIX.
+
+WINNOWING.
+
+Page 228.]
+
+The minor accessories of farming, such as the dairy, poultry and the
+stock-yard, which, we are told, stand between many an English farmer and
+ruin, are here ignored. For this, however, there is some excuse in the
+vexatious and mistaken system of the octroi (_consumos_), under which
+farm-produce and consumables of every kind are taxed on entering the
+town. The rural farmer, it is true, escapes the town taxes, but as a
+counterpoise, to tax his produce on its way to market, is clearly
+saddling the wrong horse.[48] The incidence of such a burden clearly
+falls upon the already over-taxed consumer in the towns, increasing the
+cost of the necessaries of life. The whole system is, moreover,
+arbitrary and irritating. How would one like at home to be stopped every
+time he came in from a day's shooting, in order that a "duty" may be
+assessed on his bag of partridge, rabbits, or quail? Or, worse still, on
+a few bottles of wine which may remain unconsumed at luncheon, but which
+the official of the octroi knows perfectly well were taken out into the
+_campo_ that same morning?
+
+The principal crops raised (Andalucia) are wheat, barley, beans, and
+chick-pea (_garbanzo_), together with rye, alfalfa, vetches, and
+canary-seed. Very few oats are sown, barley forming the chief grain-food
+for horses.[49] No roots are cultivated, no manure applied, nor any
+scientific rotation of crops attempted.
+
+Neither maize nor rice are cultivated in the south, though both form
+important items in other parts of the Peninsula. Rice, especially, is
+grown on the Mediterranean coast (Valencia, &c.), and in Portugal.
+Possibly the Andalucian marismas _might_ form "paddy-fields" that would
+make San Lucar a rival of Rangoon, as similarly Cadiz _might_ compete
+with Odessa. But may these "improvements" await another age! May some
+few outlandish nooks and corners of Europe be left as God made them,
+where primaeval conditions may yet survive, and wild nature reign in
+uncontaminated glory--at least during our time.
+
+Much could easily be done to bring Spanish farming nearer to European
+standards. Improvements will come, one day or another: already the dawn
+of a more active industrial life is beginning to glimmer. But as yet the
+flutter extends only to manufactures, not to agriculture. Capitalists
+are beginning to furnish their factories with the appliances of modern
+machinery, and Spanish workmen are found capable of adapting themselves,
+by their intelligence and attention, to the new conditions, and to bear
+a fair comparison with the workmen of other countries.
+
+The wave of progress is at present confined to the foundry, the mine,
+and the workshop, but will some day, perhaps, extend to the
+_campo_--substitute the steam-plough and reaper for the sluggish ox-team
+and sickle, the steam-thrasher for the trotting brood-mares, and
+metamorphose into an active industry the present drowsy, old-world
+routine of Spanish agriculture.
+
+Progress in Spain moves with halting step, and it were folly to cherish
+sanguine expectations. Such a change can only come with altered
+conditions in the people. Why, for example, try to improve dairy
+arrangements when there is no demand for fresh butter? Why trouble with
+the cattle when the fighting bull is the prize animal of the pasture?
+What encouragement is there to improve the grazing of stock when an
+enthusiast who had stall-fed his beasts is told by the butcher, "if you
+wish me to sell any more of your animals, you must send them _without
+fat_"? Hitherto this gentleman's efforts to reform the national taste
+have resulted in utter collapse. Fattened joints are, in Spain, in
+advance of the age, amongst a people wedded to the flesh-pots of the
+_puchero_, wherein the beef is required to be, above all things, lean.
+The fat of the pig only is appreciated in Spanish cuisine.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+ON SPANISH AGRICULTURE--(CONTINUED).
+
+THE OLIVE.
+
+
+Interspersed amidst the monotony of corn-land and vineyard is seen the
+peculiar foliage of the olive. Its regular rows of sober green cover
+many of the higher lands and hillsides, and its produce, next to corn
+and wine, occupies the third place of importance. Outside the ancient
+_huertas_, where since Moorish days the orange, lemon, and citron have
+been carefully tended and watered, the olive is the only cultivated
+tree; and well does it repay the minimum of care which it requires. The
+olive enters largely into the economy of every-day existence, forming an
+important element both in the food and light of the Spanish people.
+Olive-oil is the universal illuminant--in a little saucer with
+rudely-fixed cotton wick (the _mariposa_), it lights the herdsman's
+choza, the cottage, and cortijo: this oil is also a leading article of
+consumption with all classes. To the poor it is an absolute necessary,
+taking the place occupied by meat among northern nations, giving flavour
+and zest to the hard bread and to the tough dry stock-fish imported from
+Newfoundland or Norwegian fjord--besides being an essential ingredient
+in the universal gazpacho. The fruit itself, in various forms, gives a
+national flavour to nearly every dish. Every one eats olives, from the
+wayfarer on the dusty highroad, whose hunch of dry bread is sweetened by
+a handful of the piquant fruit, to the Madrilenian epicure who at
+Lhardy's restaurant demands the "Reinas" from Seville. These olives are
+of large size,--almost like walnuts--and are only rivalled in flavour
+by the "manzanillas," a smaller variety more resembling the French
+olive, but, to our thinking, of superior taste.
+
+These two kinds are carefully gathered in late autumn, and are in
+universal demand throughout the Peninsula. Beyond its boundaries they
+are little known or appreciated, though some few have already found
+consumers in the north of Europe.
+
+[Illustration: "WAITING FOR DEATH."]
+
+Although the olive-trees are of the hardiest nature--otherwise they
+could not survive, without irrigation, the intense heats of summer--yet
+the crop is a precarious one. After the fruit has been gathered in
+December, or rather beaten off the trees, for that is the method
+adopted, the olives destined for the oil-mill are subjected to severe
+pressure by rudely-constructed wooden screws, often supplemented by
+stone-weights--again the simplest appliances of modern machinery are
+often neglected--and the oil extracted is drawn off and separated into
+different qualities. None, however, is of that grade--or rather its
+manufacture and elaboration are too rough and careless, to enable the
+Spanish produce to compete with the refined neutral oils of Italy and
+France. With a little more care in its manufacture, and more energy in
+its introduction to foreign markets, the rich oils of Spain might
+doubtless be made a source of much additional national wealth.
+
+Its substantial qualities, and in particular its power of long
+sustaining light, are appreciated in Russia, where it is superseding the
+oils of other countries for its reliable illumination of the _icons_, or
+sacred lamps. The religious tenets of the Muscovites require that these
+small lamps, suspended before their images, should burn brightly,
+without trimming, through the longest winter nights of eighteen or
+twenty hours. The little glass tumblers of the icons are filled to the
+brim with Spanish oil: a perforated metal bar placed across, holds the
+lightly-twisted cotton wick, and once lighted the little lamp burns
+brightly, without smoke or attention, through the longest nights of the
+northern winter.
+
+At present the preparation and export of Spanish oil is almost
+monopolized by the port of Malaga.
+
+
+HORSE-BREEDING AND LIVE STOCK.
+
+Andalucia is the breeding-ground of the best horses of the Peninsula:
+many of the landowners are possessed of well-known "brands," as they are
+called, and the farmers are almost universally interested in horses to
+some extent. Great strides have been made of recent years in the
+improvement of the breeds through the importation of thorough-bred
+English sires, &c. This is, indeed, the one branch of rural industry in
+which a decided advance has been made. Since the introduction of racing
+into the country by Englishmen, about 1867--Jerez de la Frontera being
+the cradle of this, as of most other sports--the superiority of the
+present breed has been thoroughly established. Horses of a larger and
+better stamp than formerly are now seen bearing the branded device of
+the various provincial herds, it being still the custom to brand each
+foal with the particular sign of the stud to which it belongs.
+
+For temper and enduring powers the old Spanish hack could never be
+improved upon; but in shape and make the race had sadly degenerated
+since the Spanish Gennet was the favourite and fashionable steed of the
+wealthy both in France and England. The heavy Flemish stallions
+introduced by Carlos Quinto--of which Velasquez' pictures give us the
+type--account for this falling-off from the earlier form of that
+high-bred Arab race which long ago supplied the wants of a nation of
+horsemen--the _Caballeros_, whose interests in life were coloured and
+directed by a devotion to knight-errantry unparalleled in other lands,
+and which still leaves its impress on the thought and habit of the
+_Hidalgos_ of to-day.
+
+Now, however, the Andalucian horse bids fair to regain his ancient
+prestige; some of the more ambitious _haras_ boast their strings of
+pedigree-stock, and the stud-book of Spain is an established
+institution, its register having been zealously kept till this year, by
+the sportsman-grandee, the late Duke of Fernan Nunez.
+
+In contrast to these favoured breeds, and at the other extremity of the
+scale, we have the almost wild horses of the marismas, which shift for
+themselves throughout the year on the open wastes, and fly, like the
+deer, from the unaccustomed sight of man. The heats of summer, the cold
+and wet of winter, are faced in turn by this hardy race, which, in
+return for their freedom, provide their owners with a yearly contingent
+of sturdy offspring. These youngsters are only separated from the wild
+herds, "rounded up," and captured with great difficulty--after long and
+fast chases on the open plains. Perfect little demons of vice and fury
+they are, too, when caught, shaggy and unkempt little beasts, coated
+with dried mud, biting at each other, quarrelling and screaming with
+savage rage--a _corral_ full of them newly-caught is indeed a singular
+sight. On many of the old mares of the marisma the hand of man has never
+placed a halter.
+
+Of the fine description of Spanish merino sheep, so celebrated till the
+beginning of the eighteenth century, and so rigorously guarded and
+protected by Spanish Governments, there remains to-day hardly a trace.
+France, Sweden, and Saxony found means about that period to obtain
+specimens of the Spanish breed, and with them departed the glory of the
+privileged race. There remain now in Spain but degenerate
+representatives. Years of apathy have left to her little but the
+coarsest breed of sheep both as to flesh and fleece. The race from which
+nearly all the best European varieties have originated is now, perhaps,
+the lowest on the list.
+
+Mutton is comparatively scarce in the southern _mercados_, where for one
+sheep may be seen a dozen kids exposed for sale. The latter--strange
+parti-coloured little beasts--together with the ubiquitous pig and
+tough, stringy beef, provide most of the meat consumed in Spain, whose
+scant quantity and poor quality is eked out by vast supplies of small
+birds--Larks, Buntings, Quails, and the like--which are caught by means
+of a dark-lantern at night, as we have elsewhere described; whole
+festoons of small birds, with Partridge, wildfowl, and Little Bustards,
+adorn the market-stalls in the Spanish cities, flanked by Roe and Red
+Deer from the forests, and sometimes by a grizzly boar from the sierra.
+
+The Spanish markets also afford a wondrous display of southern fruits
+and vegetables--whole mountains of golden melons and _sandias_, tons of
+tomatoes and pimientos (red pepper), prickly pears, purple-ripe figs,
+loquats, apricots, grapes, and other fruit according to season; with
+lettuces, wild asparagus and a host of other vegetables. From every
+house in the town comes a servant to purchase the day's requirements of
+fish, flesh, fowl, or fruit--for everything is bought and consumed from
+day to day. There is no "cold mutton" in a Spanish menu! By eight
+o'clock, but little remains unsold, so an early start is needed to see
+the best of the show.
+
+To return to the muttons: it should be added that Spain is now
+practically the only European country which still exports wool to the
+London market--upwards of a million and a half pounds' weight of Spanish
+wool annually reaching the Thames.
+
+
+SUPPLEMENT.
+
+Since writing the above, we have come across an interesting article on
+this subject in one of the best Spanish papers (the _Epoca_), from which
+we translate the following extracts, giving the native version of the
+present agricultural status:--"We must confess that the condition of
+Spanish agriculture is sufficiently deplorable, not only by reason of
+the apathy of its agriculturists, but also through the difficulties
+which the land presents to its perfect cultivation, to the use of
+manures, and the employment of modern machinery. It must be borne in
+mind that the land of the abrupt mountains of the Asturias, Galicia, and
+Cataluna condemns the country-people to the roughest and most laborious
+preparation. This is shared, though to a less extent, by the
+_labradores_ of the arid regions of Guipuzcoa, Biscay and Navarre; of
+the ricefields of Valencia, and on the sunburnt _vegas_ of Andalucia and
+Estremadura. Besides these physical difficulties there are other
+disadvantages of hardly less importance. A vast extent of terrain now
+lies waste and uncultivated through lack of capital and sparseness of
+population; through the heavy tribute exacted by the state on
+agricultural produce, and the absence of means of communication to
+economize the transport of the harvest.
+
+"Notwithstanding these immense difficulties, the Spanish agriculturist
+produces on fifty-six million _hectares_ of cultivable land an excess
+over the consumption of sixty-one million _hectolitres_[50] in cereals
+alone.
+
+"The _superficies rustica_ of Spain may be classed in the following
+form:--
+
+ "Without cultivation of any kind 42.8 per cent.{*}
+ Cultivated 28.6 "
+ Pasture (_terreno de pasto_) 14.6 "
+ Woods, orchards, and gardens 14.0 "
+ -----
+ 100.0
+
+{*} 45.8 is the figure stated, but as that would exceed the 100 we have
+reduced it accordingly.
+
+"The average value of this superficies, according to annual production;
+and the capital which it represents, is as follows:--
+
+ Class. Annual produce. Capital.
+ Cultivated L180,400,000 L220,720,000
+ Pasture 31,960,000 153,280,000
+ Woods, gardens, &c. 31,568,000 49,280,000
+
+"If we take into account that the 42.8 per cent.{*} of uncultivated land
+has also its 'prairie value,' it may be safely calculated that the
+landed property of Spain represents a sum of L560,000,000 (five hundred
+and sixty millions sterling).
+
+"The number of inhabitants of Spain who devote themselves to agriculture
+is, according to the census returns, 4,821,875."
+
+The same article gives a summary of the 22,291 mills and flour-factories
+of Spain, by which it appears the motive power used is as follows:--
+
+ Steam 374 (!)
+ Wind 541
+ Horses 56
+ Hand 787
+ Water (various systems) 20,533
+ ------
+ Total 22,291
+
+From a current number of a daily paper we cut the following
+advertisement, as showing the value set on _water_ in thirsty
+Spain:--"To be let, the grazing-grounds (_dehesa_) of Junco Real, in the
+district (_termino_) of Chichlana. Contains 1,075 _fanegas_ of brushwood
+and 237 of cultivation (_labor_), with SIX WELLS."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+BIRD-LIFE OF THE SPANISH SPRING-TIME.
+
+I.--THE PINALES, OR PINE REGION.
+
+
+There are features of Spanish bird-life that give the subject a claim on
+the interest of British readers. Spain is the home of many of those
+species which we call "rare;" some of the rarest are here quite common.
+Especially is this the case with the large birds of prey, with many
+aquatic species--such as the beautiful Southern Herons--and various
+other bird-groups.
+
+Lying midway between Europe and Africa, Spain also affords opportunity
+for the observation of migration--nearly all our British summer-birds
+can be observed here in transit, during the spring months: some, indeed,
+have wintered in Spain, while the rest appear on passage from Africa to
+the North.
+
+More than this, Spain possesses a magnificent avi-fauna of her own,
+entirely unknown in England. Ornithologically, her southern
+provinces--at least in spring--might be included in what Mr. Sclater
+designates the "Cis-atlantean Subregion" (_Ibis_, 1891, p. 523), for
+their feathered denizens at that season approximate rather to the North
+African than to the European _ornis_.
+
+Nor need these spring-notes be interesting _exclusively_ to the
+naturalist: for observation in the wilder and more remote regions
+involves a degree of hard work and of field-craft that brings this
+bird-hunting fairly within the category of _sport_. Cases in point, as
+those of the Flamingo and Crane--elsewhere described, and of the eagles
+and large raptores. Here, for example, is one day's record from our
+diary:--"Camp at Navasso Redondo, _April 18th_.--Our captures to-day
+included 3 eagles, 4 kites, 2 large hawks, 5 ducks, an egret, 2
+stone-plover, &c. First, Felipe woke me at day-break to say a pair of
+_aguiluchos_ had just coursed and killed a hare within 200 yards of the
+tent. Turned out in jersey and _alparagatas_, and stalked the spot
+indicated, when a small eagle flew from a tree away in the scrub to the
+left. I stood up, thinking the game was gone, when a second Booted Eagle
+(_Aquila pennata_) rose from the ground not forty yards ahead, and was
+secured. Later on, during the mid-day heat, we _thrice_ descried eagles
+perched on high trees--unusual luck. Both the first and second stalks
+failed, owing partly to bad marking in the first case, and to
+'impossible' terrain in the second. The third, however, I killed--a very
+handsome tawny eagle. He was sitting on a pine in the centre of a
+circular swampy jungle: there was no considerable difficulty in creeping
+round the outside, nor till the final, direct approach commenced, when
+the ground became very bad--for the last 100 yards, strong briar-bound
+thicket and tussocks of spear-grass with deep bog-pools between, water
+up to one's waist. Had got to fifty yards when he saw me, and a lucky
+shot killed him as he opened his wings. Also stalked to-day two
+Harriers--a Marsh-Harrier (female) and a beautiful blue old Montagu: in
+the first case the stalk was supplemented by a short 'drive' by Felipe.
+At dusk we observed a pair of Serpent-Eagles go to roost in a large
+single _alcornoque_: waited till dark, when we crept, barefoot, towards
+the tree, one on either side, and I killed the female eagle as she flew
+out into the moonlight. During the day we had found five nests of the
+Kite--shot four birds for identification, two from nest, the others
+after long _puestos_--and also brought in, besides the eagles, &c., two
+Gadwall, a Garganey drake, two White-eyed Pochard, an egret, seven terns
+(various), several small birds, and twenty-nine eggs--a memorable day!"
+To stalk to within gunshot of an eagle, on the open plain, is almost as
+difficult an operation as any in our experience--that is unless, as
+sometimes happens, the conditions are unusually favourable.
+
+During several springs we have made ornithological expeditions each of a
+fortnight to three weeks' duration, in various parts of Andalucia
+(itself nearly as large as England), La Mancha, and Southern
+Estremadura. Between the great rivers Guadalquivir and Guadiana lies a
+wild region, almost abandoned to wild animals, and rich in picturesque
+desolation. The district is an undulating plain, its chief physical
+constituent being sand, or light sandy soil, clad over wide areas with
+pine-forest, elsewhere with open heaths which extend from the Atlantic
+to the confines of Estremadura and the border-land between Spain and
+Portugal, or rather of the ancient kingdom of the Algarves. The southern
+portion is known as the _Cotos del Rey_ and _Donana_, the latter,
+extending some forty miles inland from the sea, the property of the
+noble house bearing one of the oldest European titles--that of Medina
+Sidonia. The Coto de Donana, as the name implies, is a preserve, and,
+owing to the circumstance of our having for many years been lessees of
+the sporting rights, this lovely wilderness has formed a favourite
+hunting-ground at all seasons. But we have also traversed some other of
+the wilder regions of the south--many quite as rich, zoologically--such,
+for example, as the wooded province of Cordova, the _vegas_ of the
+Sierra Nevada and the environs of Almaden; and we now believe that, for
+the naturalist, the richest field of all is in Southern Estremadura and
+the almost unexplored borders of Guadiana. That river, from Daimiel
+downwards, flows through wildernesses of cane-brake, abounding both in
+large and small game, and in spring-time with infinite variety of birds.
+
+For our present purpose we have divided the Spanish plains into three
+sections:--the pine-forests, the open heaths, and the meres or lagoons;
+of these we will now take the _pinales_.
+
+The first thing that strikes an Englishman in Spain is the number and
+variety of the birds of prey. At home we have practically exterminated
+these, but here they are ever in evidence, from massive eagles and yet
+larger vultures down to the smallest falcons. Those bald-headed
+fellows, hunting low with heavy flight, or "drifting" alternately on
+motionless pinions, are Marsh-Harriers; the long-winged hawks, like
+giant swallows, are the Montagu's Harrier. Buzzards are of more soaring
+flight, resembling in form the eagles, but lacking their regal presence;
+while the Kites are recognized by the deeply forked tail. Ever since
+Rugby days and the Kestrel's nest in Caldecott's classic spinney, the
+birds of prey have had a special attraction to the writer--to whom,
+_pace_ the later lights of ornithological science, a hawk still holds
+the chief place among birds.
+
+Starting on a bright April morning to traverse the _pinales_ of La
+Marismilla, our first find was a nest of the Serpent-Eagle (_Circaeetus
+gallicus_) built in the main fork of a stone-pine, a curiously twisted
+tree growing apart on a heathery knoll in a forest-glade. This, and all
+the nests of this eagle we have seen, was small, very thick in
+proportion to width, had a layer of dead leaves, and then a lining of
+twigs. This bird only lays one egg--large, rough, and white--which fact
+perhaps explains the relative smallness of their nests. Below are strewn
+many vertebrae of serpents; a female we shot had a snake four feet long
+in her beak, only a few inches hanging outside; another, killed at her
+nest in a mountain-forest of the sierra, had a rabbit; but snakes and
+large reptiles are their chief prey. Snakes abound in Spain, and some
+grow to great size, many reaching six feet in length, and we have killed
+lizards of nearly three.
+
+The legs and feet of this eagle are pale bluish, and very rough--to hold
+their slippery prey. The eye is large, overhung, and very bright yellow;
+flight buoyant, but rather unsteady, and they show very white from
+below. Most reptiles hybernating, even in sunny Spain, the Serpent-Eagle
+is only a summer migrant--we have never observed it in the winter
+months. The date of arrival this year (1891) was March 8th. In 1888 we
+observed a pair as early as the 3rd.
+
+Both eagles soared around so near that there was no difficulty in
+recognizing the species; indeed their heavy heads--almost
+owl-like--recurved wings and white under-sides, cannot be mistaken.[51]
+Not requiring them as specimens, we continued our ride, and during the
+day found two nests of the Buzzard, each with three eggs; the only nests
+of this species found this spring--except one with young in June--the
+Buzzard being more numerous in winter, when almost every dead tree is
+occupied by one of these indolent hawks. All the Spanish-breeding
+Buzzards are of the normal dark brown type. The Goshawk (_Astur
+palumbarius_) we have also observed in these Andalucian forests both in
+spring and winter, but have not chanced to find it breeding here
+ourselves, though it is on record that it occasionally does so.
+
+The next two nests discovered were both those of the Kite (_Milvus
+ictinus_), each on a lofty pine. There are in Spain two kinds of Kite,
+whose wild musical scream is characteristic of these lonely woodlands.
+There is the _Milano real_--the Red Kite, resident in Spain, and
+distinguishable from the migrant Black Kite (_Milvus migrans_) by the
+broad white band on the under-wing, caused by the basal half of the
+primaries being white beneath (this band in _M. migrans_ being
+smoke-grey), and by the more deeply forked tail. The Black Kite is
+altogether a more dusky coloured species.
+
+The eggs of the two species, and those of Buzzards and others, are
+indistinguishable; it is therefore necessary to shoot or trap the birds
+from the nest to make sure of identification. But the Red Kite breeds
+earlier (at the end of March, and early in April) and in more secluded
+spots than its ally, whose habits, moreover, are, in places, almost
+gregarious. We have seen a score of Black Kites' nests in a small patch
+of wood, not two acres--but eggs are not laid till quite the end of
+April or early in May.
+
+[Illustration: Plate XXX.
+
+KITES AND MARSH-HARRIERS.
+
+Page 242.]
+
+A singular, but well-known, habit of the Kite (the Red, not the Black
+species) is to decorate their abodes with a collection of gaudy rags and
+other fantastic rubbish: in one case I found the dead and dried remains
+of a White Owl hung up, in others the long quill-feathers of the
+Spoon-bill and other birds, a linen shirt-sleeve, old match-boxes, and
+similar sundries. But this curious custom was useful in saving many an
+unnecessary climb--no nest was worth going up to unless a rag or two
+fluttered in the breeze. The Kites, moreover, select the loftiest trees
+for their abodes, and owing to the habit of Spanish foresters to lop off
+all the lower branches of the pines when saplings, these trees grow up
+tall, straight, and slippery as fishing-rods. Fortunately for oological
+enterprise, the scant population of the _pinales_ are mostly
+_pinaleros_--pine-cone gatherers. These pine-cones are used for fuel and
+for making a confection something like _nougat_. The tree-climbing
+abilities of the _pinaleros_ are marvellous: in this way we obtained
+many eggs of Kite, Buzzard, Booted Eagle, and most of the
+forest-breeding species.
+
+After a stiff climb to one Kite's nest, built in a tall branchless
+aspen, whose base was barricaded by clinging thorny briars, I was
+disappointed to find no eggs. The Kite had sat close, and I had just
+shot her from the nest: all around hung the customary decorations, yet
+the big nest appeared to contain nothing but a white rag. I turned this
+over, and there, beneath and almost wrapt in what proved to be a
+delicate cambric handkerchief, embroidered with the name "Antonia M.,"
+lay two handsome eggs! The fair Andaluza who had lost this property
+might throw an interesting light on the distances traversed by Kites in
+the search thereof: Shakespeare warned her (_Winter's Tale_, Act IV.,
+Sc. 2), "Where the Kite builds, look to lesser linen."
+
+Another denizen of the _pinales_ requires passing notice--the Raven. It
+is curious that in Spain these birds nest later than in northern lands.
+In Northumberland the Raven lays early in March, or even at the end of
+February, amidst snow and frost. Here, on the last day of April, we
+found two nests on pines not far apart. One was warmly lined with
+sheep's wool, but still empty; the other with rabbits' fur, and
+contained five fresh eggs.
+
+The nests of Ravens, Kites, Buzzards, and Booted Eagles are hardly
+distinguishable from below, except that the eagle usually selects the
+main fork, the others building out on the lateral branches. In the
+crevices and foundations of all these large nests are often inserted the
+untidy, grass-built edifices of the chestnut-headed Spanish Sparrow
+(_Passer salicicolus_), a forest-loving species, not found in the haunts
+of men like his cousin of the streets, and having a special predilection
+for sharing the homes of the larger raptores, as our Sparrows at home
+build under the nests in a rookery.
+
+The large birds of prey are always difficult to shoot, even at their
+nests: and for capturing them the circular steel-traps proved
+invaluable, saving much time and being almost certain in their action.
+The miseries of a _puesto_, or ambush, of an hour, or even two, lying on
+the burning sand, in the stifling heat of the underwood, to await the
+return of the birds, one does not forget. For minutes that pass like an
+eternity, the keen-eyed Kite will hover and sail overhead; meanwhile a
+hissing column of mosquitoes have focussed themselves over one's face:
+black ants, like small dumb-bells, and creeping things innumerable,
+penetrate up one's sleeve and down one's neck: while at the critical
+moment, when one must remain rigidly motionless, a huge hairy spider of
+hideous mien gently lowers itself on to one's nose.
+
+A Kite or Buzzard is too cautious to return directly to the nest.
+Alighting first on a distant pine, it will approach by three or four
+flights, and at last one knows that the coveted prize sits well within
+shot, but either directly behind, or in such a position that (from the
+ambush) the gun cannot be brought to bear. The trap saved all this, and
+rarely failed to secure such specimens as were required--many caught by
+the beak and killed instantly.[52]
+
+[Illustration: Plate XXXI.
+
+SAND-DUNES AND CORRALES OF DONANA.
+
+Page 245.]
+
+A characteristic of the forests of Donana are the enormous
+sand-hills--mountains of blown sand dazzling in the reflected sunlight,
+and devoid of green thing or trace of life, beyond the track of prowling
+Lynx or Mongoose, or the curious "broad-gauge" _vestigia_ of the
+tortoise. Stay: there is a thin black strip of moving objects--they are
+all ants, and that is one of their great highways--a beaten track
+connecting two great industrial centres. Except on the chosen line--a
+mere strip barely an inch wide, though hundreds of yards in length--not
+another insect will be visible on the wastes of sand. To the selected
+route each member of their infinite community confines his course as
+systematically as the steamships of our great ocean lines. One cannot
+resist the temptation of interrupting this well-regulated microcosm.
+Instantly confusion spreads in the black ranks: around the point of
+obstruction the intercepted battalions spread out like a fan: the tumult
+and disorder extend backwards along either column till for yards the
+sand is carpeted with the fragments of a disorganized host. But these
+scattered units are each seeking to re-establish their lost continuity.
+The re-formed column deflects a little to pass on one side or the other
+(not both), and in a few minutes the "trade-route" has resumed its
+former monotonous regularity.
+
+Elsewhere the sand-wastes are clothed, especially in their deeper dells
+and hollows, with cistus-scrub or tamarisk, and the stone-pine (_Pinus
+pinea_) somehow finds sustenance and even luxuriates. How plant-life can
+survive on the remnants of pulverized rock is a mystery--though here,
+perhaps, the deep-seated roots strike into alluvial soil below--and no
+more comprehensible in view of the analogous fact that the vines
+producing the richest Spanish wines also flourish in equally ungenial
+soils. The vintages of Jerez are garnered from grapes grown on arid and
+silicious soil: the strong red wine of Val-de-Penas, so grateful in
+torrid Spain, comes, literally, from a "valley of stones," and in the
+Alto Douro the vineyards occupy hillsides composed of little bits of
+(what looks like) broken slate and disintegrated shale, so little
+coherent, that the slopes must be terraced before they are cultivable.
+Strange anomalies--plant a vine in rich soil, and you get vine
+leaves--in tropical lands, the vine becomes a barren evergreen--in arid
+soil or shale, it produces nectar.
+
+Firm and compacted as appears the substance of these sand-hills--the
+sandstone of a future age--it yet retains, to some extent, its shifty
+and unstable character. At intervals its masses elect to move onwards
+and to engulf forests over which, for centuries, they have impended.
+Immediately below where we sit, the ridge terminates, abrupt as a
+precipice. Two hundred yards beyond, the sloping sand-foot is studded
+with half-buried pines--several forest monarchs already entombed to
+their centres, alive, but struggling in their death-throes. Of others,
+farther back, only the topmost branches protrude, sere, yellow, and
+dead, from the devouring particles. And beneath those glistening sands,
+hidden far from sight, doubtless there rest the skeletons of buried
+forests of bygone days.
+
+Just above us in the peak of the stone-pine under whose shade we enjoy
+the midday rest, is a huge platform of sticks--a deserted throne of the
+king of birds. Now this eyrie is deserted, the daylight shows through
+its centre, and the tree is occupied by different tenants--a pair of
+Cushats: before now we have seen them share the same tree with the
+tyrant. Bird-notes are hushed during the midday heat, and silence reigns
+over the forest: presently from afar comes the strident _kark, kark_ of
+the Raven, and then from mid-air resounds the musical scream of a Kite
+floating in the heaven above.
+
+Riding along the open glades, the most conspicuous birds in spring are
+the brilliant Rollers and Hoopoes, parties of Hawfinches and Crossbills,
+always shy, an occasional Spotted Cuckoo (_C. glandarius_) or Southern
+Grey Shrike (_L. meridionalis_); handsome Woodchats (_L._ _rufus_)
+scold in every bush, and various Finches and Woodpeckers, Tits and
+Creepers, enliven the woodlands, and sprightly Rufous Warblers the drier
+plain. Among the cane-brakes and _carices_ that fringe the marshy
+hollows skulk several other warblers--the Great Sedge and Black-headed
+Warblers (_S. arundinacea_ and _melanocephala_), Orphean, Cetti's, and
+the little Fantail, besides our familiar Willow-Wrens, Chiffchaffs,
+Blackcaps, Redstarts and Robins--the latter resident, and very bright in
+colour. The Black Redstart has already disappeared (April), but from day
+to day one sees our British migrants arriving, resting, or passing
+forward on their northern journey. Swallows especially are conspicuous:
+to-day the air is alive with them, sweeping along the open glades:
+to-night they roost in chattering hosts in the trees around our
+camp--to-morrow they are gone, not a swallow remains: and this occurs a
+dozen times during April and May.
+
+On April 13th and two following days there occurred a conspicuous
+"through transit" of Pied Flycatchers, and two days later (in another
+year) the brushwood was alive with Redstarts, all on passage. On the
+25th we were visited for a couple of hours by hundreds of Alpine Swifts:
+and the same evening the large Red-necked Nightjars (_C. ruficollis_)
+arrived, to add their churring note to the crepuscular chorus of frogs
+and night-birds for the rest of the spring and summer. One evening in
+May, while watching a pair of Golden Orioles to their nest, I witnessed
+a rather curious eviction. A Spanish Green Woodpecker (_Gecinus
+sharpii_), her gullet crammed with ants, flew to a hole in a wild-olive,
+but was met at the entrance by a furious Little Owl (_Athene noctua_),
+which soon drove the clumsier bird (which had no idea of self-defence)
+screaming to the shelter of some brushwood. Soon after, her mate
+returned, but met with a similar reception, the savage little owl
+perching meanwhile on an adjacent branch, where he sat bolt upright, all
+fluffed out, and snapping with rage. On examining the place, I found the
+woodpeckers had a numerous family, nearly ready to fly: while the owl
+had deposited a single egg in an adjoining hole. The execution of the
+aggressor seemed, at first, the only means of saving this thriving
+family, but, on second thoughts, I decided that the justice of the case
+would be met by removing the defendant's egg, and filling up his hole
+with sticks.
+
+The Orioles' nest I shortly afterwards discovered, built in a white-elm,
+at the extreme end of a long pendant branch, the whole of which it was
+necessary to cut down. This nest, however, was empty. The Golden Orioles
+do not lay till nearly the middle of May, and from the shyness of the
+old birds, and the aerial situation of the nest, their eggs are among
+the most difficult to obtain.
+
+[Illustration: HOOPOES.]
+
+During the early part of May we found many nests of Hoopoes, some in
+hollow trees, one in a ruined outhouse, which we were using as a stable,
+and which, in a previous year, had been similarly occupied by a Roller,
+and always affords a home to two or three pairs of the Spotless or
+Sardinian Starling (_Sturnus unicolor_), a species which, in spring,
+replaces the common kind. On the outskirts of the woods were many nests
+of Goldfinch and Serinfinch, Common and Green Linnets, Blue and Great
+Tit, Willow-Wren, Woodchat, &c.; and in the open rushy glades, those of
+Black-headed Warbler, Blackcap and Garden Warbler, Whitethroat, Spotted
+Flycatcher, Grey-headed Wagtail (_Motacilla cinereocapilla_), and
+others. I looked in vain in these pine-woods for the Crested Tit, which
+occurs near Gibraltar, and which my brother found numerous in Navarre.
+On the 10th May I found a couple of Nightingales' nests in the tiny
+garden-patch adjoining a forester's cot, and a week later obtained
+several nests of the Melodious Willow-Warbler (_Hypolais polyglotta_)
+with their beautiful vinous-pink eggs; later still (May 28th), those of
+the Rufous Warbler (_AEdon galactodes_) among the cactus-bushes:--but
+this is getting suspiciously like a catalogue.
+
+One circumstance deserves passing remark--the relatively smaller number
+of eggs laid in the south than is the case with many of the same species
+further north. In Spain, several of the warblers, &c. above mentioned,
+lay only four eggs; the Blackbird, as a rule, but three, and these much
+brighter coloured than at home.
+
+Delightful days were those spent riding through these pathless forests,
+redolent of the exhalations of pine and rosemary, and a hundred aromatic
+shrubs, and resplendent with the glory of the southern spring-time. What
+words can convey the contrast of dark _pinal_ and dazzling sand-waste,
+or catch the play of sunlight glancing through massed foliage on russet
+trunks and the soft pale verdure of the brushwood? For long leagues
+these forests stretch unbroken save by rushy glades and park-like opens,
+where at dusk the Red Deer come to seek rich pasturage, and the Wild
+Boar ploughs deep trenches in his search for succulent roots, varied by
+a _bonne-bouche_ of mole-crickets.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+BIRD-LIFE OF THE SPANISH SPRING-TIME.
+
+II.--THE CISTUS-PLAINS AND PRAIRIES.
+
+
+Leaving the pinal, or pine region, let us spend a fortnight in the open
+bush-land beyond. Passing successively the famous manchas of the Alameda
+Honda, the Rincon de los Carrizos, and Majada Real--each coverts of
+repute, though all unknown to geographers and marked upon no map--we
+traverse next the forest-glades of the Angosturas, and enter upon a
+different region, where fresh landscapes and new beauties await
+appreciative eyes. Here the swelling sand-dunes trend away
+southwards--towards the sea. The dark bushy pine gives place to open
+heath and brushwood, stretching away to the horizon, here and there
+diversified with scattered clumps of cork-oak, aspen, wild-olive, and
+poplar.
+
+The country around our quarters is a level plain of evergreen
+scrub--lentiscus, broom, heaths of varied kinds, and mile upon mile of
+sombre grey-green cistus, generally about shoulder-high, but deepening
+in places into impassable jungle. Here and there are stagnant pools,
+around whose banks grow immense cork-oaks, embedded amidst tree-heath
+(_Erica arborea_), giant heather and arbutus, all interlaced with the
+twining, thorny fronds of briar. It is in these dank, dark depths that
+the old boars select their lairs, and they are the home of Lynx and
+Wild-Cat, Badger, Genet, and Mongoose, and of many interesting birds,
+from the Eagle to the Turtledove. The following record of some of our
+spring rambles will give an outline of the fauna of this region:--
+
+[Illustration: A SERENADE.]
+
+_April 15th._--We were astir early, a few stars shining dimly, and the
+last of the frogs still croaking in the _acequias_, as we sipped our
+matutinal chocolate upon the verandah;
+
+ [Greek:
+ brekekehex kohax kohax,
+ brekekehex kohax kohax,]
+
+repeat the frogs, as in the Stygian chorus of old. Far away over the
+half-lit expanse of cistus a pair of large eagles were already hunting
+for their breakfast, and an owl slipped close overhead and disappeared
+into a crevice of the roof above, where we could hear the snoring and
+snapping of the strigine community as the night's booty was being
+discussed. We were away by sunrise, at which hour the singular, resonant
+song of the Partridge-cocks (Red-legs) was ubiquitous: from almost every
+ilex-grove came the half-choking _chukar, chukar_, while the love-sick
+bird bowed and gesticulated, standing nearly bolt upright with
+half-expanded wings on some dead branch or shattered trunk, sometimes on
+the crest of a sand-ridge.[53]
+
+Within a quarter-mile of the lodge we found a Kite's nest, shot the old
+bird, replaced her two eggs with two hen's eggs and a steel-trap: and
+had hardly ridden two hundred yards ere the male swept down and was
+caught. Seldom are so fine a pair of birds secured so easily! During
+this day we found no fewer than six nests, for the Kite, as before
+stated, prefers the open country to the forest, and almost each clump of
+cork-trees was tenanted by a pair. These cork-groves are also occupied
+by many other species--by birds of plumage whose resplendent hues appear
+almost tropical--such as Golden Oriole, Roller, Bee-eater, Hoopoes,
+Woodpeckers, Azure-winged Magpie, and others hardly less brilliant. Amid
+the ilex-groves the Golden Oriole hangs suspended, hovering like a
+Kestrel in mid-air, his rich orange lustre justifying the Spanish
+name--_oropendola_: the Roller, clad in chestnut and azure, and rich
+parti-coloured Hoopoes and Pied Woodpeckers flit among the foliage.
+Presently a harsh "chack, chack" announces the arrival of a wandering
+party of Bee-eaters, most brilliant of European birds; and a score of
+these sweep round, alternately rising and poising, or soaring on
+clean-cut, hawk-like wing, then darting downwards amidst the masses of
+flowering heaths in pursuit of industrious _aphidae_. The Bee-eaters pass
+on: but there is no truce for the insect-world, for other deadly
+enemies, the Woodchat and Southern Grey Shrike, sit by on every bush,
+intent on impaling heavy-flying bee or beetle. From the alcornoques
+there resounds the shrieking maniacal laughter of the flame-coloured
+Spanish Woodpecker (_Gecinus sharpii_) as he flies heavily from tree to
+tree with rustling, undulated flight: then there is an occasional
+Azure-winged Magpie (_Cyanopica cookii_), there are Wood-Pigeons and
+Turtle-Doves, Spotted Cuckoos, and Magpies in swarms. The cavernous
+trunks are occupied by colonies of Jackdaws, less hoary-naped than ours,
+the lesser crevices by Hoopoes, Scop's and Little Owls.
+
+Nearly all the brilliantly-plumaged birds which at this season lend a
+semi-tropical character to the Spanish avi-fauna, are
+spring-migrants--pouring across the straits during the months of March
+and April, and retiring to African latitudes in autumn. Here is a brief
+record, showing dates of arrival, &c., chiefly from the observations of
+one year (1891), but supplemented where necessary by those of previous
+springs, with a few incidental notes.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_February 21st._--Many Swallows arrived: in thousands on 23rd--a
+complete nuisance while snipe-shooting. On February 28th some were
+already beginning to nest.
+
+_February 26th._--A single Hoopoe arrived: numerous by 3rd March. Also
+observed a Goshawk.
+
+_February 28th._--A pair of Egyptian Vultures, and many Lesser Kestrels
+were seen to-day.
+
+_March 1st._--Great Spotted Cuckoo, and a single Wheat-ear appeared.
+Many of the Wigeon and other ducks, and all Golden Plovers are now gone.
+Shot four Garganey.
+
+_March 8th._--First Serpent-Eagle (two more on 10th), and many Black
+Kites, in _pinales_. The White Wagtails entirely disappeared about this
+date. Landrail shot.
+
+_March 10th._--Hundreds of Wood-Pigeons--all gone next day. Shot a pair
+of Black Storks (1869).
+
+_March 13th._--Last Woodcock. Not one-fifth of the ducks now remain in
+marisma.
+
+_March 19th._--Shot Scop's Owl in garden at Jerez.
+
+_March 20th._--Observed Kentish and Lesser Ring Plovers, and shot Purple
+Heron. Flights of Cranes passing north.
+
+_March 24th._--Observed Short-toed Larks, and Spotless Starling;
+Black-headed Gulls still here, in full breeding-plumage. Ruff and
+Black-tailed Godwits shot to-day.
+
+_March 26th._--Ring-Ouzel (Sierra Bermeja), and in same district, Booted
+Eagle on 29th, Woodchat 30th, and Rock-Thrush on April 3rd.
+
+_March 30th_ (1883).--Woodchats: and first Cuckoo heard in garden.
+Starlings, Thrushes and Sky-larks have all gone.
+
+_March 31st_ (1872).--Swarms of Bee-eaters, Eared and Russet Wheatears,
+and two or three Rollers.
+
+_March 31st_ (1891).--While away in sierra, the following birds have
+appeared: Savi's, Spectacled, and Subalpine Warblers (all obtained),
+Cirl-Buntings, Swifts.
+
+_April 3rd._--Nightingales in garden. They do not sing for the first few
+days. First eggs laid May 7th.
+
+_April 6th._--Montagu's Harrier arrived (the last Hen-Harrier shot on
+10th). Demoiselle Crane shot.
+
+_April 8th._--Turtle-Doves in small flights, and many Bee-eaters and
+Rollers arrived. Last Snipe shot to-day.
+
+_April 9th._--Pratincoles, Whiskered and Lesser Terns.
+
+_April 10th._--Pair Marbled Ducks, one Nyroca Pochard, and an Egret
+shot. Observed White-faced Ducks.
+
+_April 16th._--Glossy Ibis--Zopiton.
+
+_April 20th._--The following have arrived within the last week or ten
+days. Great Sedge Warbler, Orphoean and Garden Warblers, Whitethroat,
+Ortolan, and Golden Orioles--the latter seen first to-day.
+
+_April 23rd._--Pair Hobbies observed--_pinales_.
+
+_April 25th._--Alpine Swifts passing over.
+
+_April 27th._--Shot Buff-backed Heron, Isla Menor: and found Bittern's
+nest with three eggs; also two of the Great Bustard, each with two eggs.
+
+_April 28th._--Night-Herons observed--marisma Gallega.
+
+_April 29th._--Rufous Warblers (_AEdon galactodes_) arrived in hundreds.
+On same date Honey-Buzzards passing northwards, flying quite low against
+a north-easterly gale, in large bands. A friend, shooting Turtle-Doves
+in the _pinales_ of San Fernando, killed six. These Buzzards pass yearly
+in hundreds (both adults and immature), on one or two days at this
+period, but usually fly very high.
+
+_April 30th._--Shot the first Russet-necked Nightjar and observed
+Melodious Willow-Warblers (_Hypolais polyglotta_). Enormous passage of
+Swallows to-day. This is also the date when the Little Bittern and
+Squacco Heron are due.
+
+_May 3rd._--Black Terns appeared. The only other nesting species yet to
+arrive are the Spotted Flycatcher, Pallid Warbler (_Hypolais opaca_),
+and the remainder of the Nightjars, Rufous Warblers, &c.
+
+_May 4th._--Camp in mid-marisma. All this night, commencing about 10
+P.M., a stream of migrating birds kept passing overhead. From the dark
+sky resounded for hours the cries of gulls and terns, sundry small
+land-birds, whimbrels, plovers and sandpipers of various species:
+besides harsher shrieks and notes that resembled those of hawks and
+herons of some kind.
+
+Amidst such wealth of bird-life lies work for many spring-visits. The
+nesting-season, moreover (the most interesting period to the
+ornithologist), extends over a greater period of time than is the case
+at home. In Spain, with its early spring and warm equable climate, it
+might be supposed that most birds would nest both early and more or less
+simultaneously. But this is not the case. The period of reproduction,
+with birds, appears to be prolonged proportionately as one approaches
+the equator. In the far north, where summer is short and sharply
+defined, this period is the same. Thus in the arctic lands of
+Spitsbergen and Novaya Zemlya, it is limited to six weeks, and in
+Lapland and Siberia to two months or so, extending in Central Europe,
+roughly speaking, to three. In Andalucia domestic duties last, with one
+species or another, over half the year. There are cases in which
+nidification commences before Christmas--as with the Lammergeyer,
+Bonelli's Eagle, and the Eagle-Owl: the Griffon Vultures and some others
+are only a little later. Whereas, on the other hand, some of the herons
+do not nest till June: _AEdon galactodes_ and the Little Bustard are
+still incubating in July, and the Flamingoes breed so late that their
+young can hardly be on the wing before the latter month.
+
+Among the earlier breeders is the Spanish Green Woodpecker, which drills
+deep holes in the hard wood of cork-oak or olive, and lays six shining
+white eggs in March. Now (April) they had young, but rear a second brood
+in May. Though they are so abundant, yet the "tapping" sound
+characteristic of the Woodpeckers is not heard in the Spanish forests,
+for their food consists of ants and of the small, red and black beetles
+that cluster in every crevice of the rough cork-bark.
+
+The Rollers were also laying in mid-April--here in hollow trees,
+elsewhere in crevices of rocks or ruins: but wherever their treasure may
+be, the silly birds are sure to disclose its position by their incessant
+"caterwauling," and anxious, tumbling flight. On the 17th April we found
+the first nest of the Southern Grey Shrike (_Lanius meridionalis_) in a
+high mastic-bush. The nest resembled that of the Missel-Thrush, the five
+eggs larger and more darkly marbled than those of the northern _L.
+excubitor_. Nests of the Woodchat (_L. rufus_) may be found in almost
+every bush from May 10th onward, and the Bee-eaters have then formed
+swarming colonies in the river-banks like Sand-Martins.
+
+As remarkable a freak as any in nature is the system of reproduction by
+proxy adopted by the Great Spotted Cuckoo (_Coccystes glandarius_). This
+smart and handsome bird, though more abundant in Estremadura and the
+Castiles, is fairly numerous on the wooded prairies of Andalucia, where
+its curious nesting habits may be observed with ease. The parasitic
+habits of the European _Cuculidae_ are well known--none of these birds
+building a nest or rearing their own young. Our British Cuckoo deposits
+its eggs singly in the nests of hedge-sparrow, warbler, wagtail, or
+other small bird--it is not particular which. The Spotted Cuckoo,
+however, does not impose this duty of rearing her young upon her
+neighbours generally, but almost exclusively upon the common Magpie:
+though exceptionally upon the Azure-winged species (_Cyanopica cookii_)
+and the Raven as well. At the Encinar del Visco, during the past year
+(1891), the writer found two of the Cuckoo's eggs in a nest of that
+bird, along with three eggs (one broken) of the owner.[54]
+
+The Spotted Cuckoo, moreover, lays eggs so exactly resembling those of
+the selected foster-mother (the Magpie) as to be hardly distinguishable.
+On close examination, it is true, they do differ in their more ellipitic
+form and granular surface: but, unless previously aware and specially on
+the look-out, no one, probably, would suspect they were not Magpie's
+eggs--apparently not even that cute bird itself does so. Even so
+experienced an ornithologist as Canon Tristram failed to discriminate
+the difference--this was in Algeria--till the zygo-dactylic foot of the
+embryos betrayed the secret (_Ibis_, 1859).
+
+The Spotted Cuckoo deposits two, three, and even four eggs in the _same_
+Magpie's nest--sometimes leaving the original owner's eggs undisturbed,
+in other cases removing all or part of them: we have noticed spilt yolk
+and the shells of broken eggs at the entrance to the nest and on the
+branches below. Hatched thus, in the domed and enclosed nests of the
+Magpie, it seems difficult for the young Spotted Cuckoos to eject their
+pseudo-brothers and sisters; but we cannot speak definitely as to this
+detail in the early life-history of these curious usurpers of hearth and
+home.
+
+The only egg of the Common Cuckoo we have ever found in Spain was in a
+nest of the Stonechat. This was on April 23rd, and there were four eggs
+of the Stonechat. The Cuckoo is common in Spain on passage, arriving
+early in April; a few remain to breed, and we have heard their note up
+to the end of May, but the majority pass on northwards at once.
+
+The Azure-winged Magpie, above referred to, is very local in the south.
+It nests not far from Jerez, and in some numbers near Coria del Rio, but
+is much more abundant in the wooded _vegas_ of Cordova, and still more
+so in Estremadura and Castile, actually swarming near Talavera de la
+Reyna, at Aranjuez, etc. Their nests, placed on bushes rather than
+trees, resemble a Jay's, slightly built of sticks exteriorly, and
+completed with green moss, dry grass, etc., and contain five or six
+eggs. Half-a-dozen nests may often be found within a hundred yards. An
+active, sprightly bird, exclusively confined to the Spanish Peninsula.
+
+[Illustration: AZURE-WINGED MAGPIES.]
+
+The Jay, though common in the mountain-forests, and in Portugal, is not
+seen on the South-Spanish plains; but the Magpie absolutely swarms.
+During lunch one day I counted upwards of seventy in sight at a time,
+and from one spot. A rushy glade before us was dotted all over with
+them; their pied breasts surmounted nearly every bush. Further away, I
+also counted during the half-hour's halt (without including such small
+fry as Kestrels, etc.) no less than twenty-one large birds of
+prey--several Kites of both kinds, a soaring Buzzard or two, Marsh-and
+Montagu's Harriers, and at least a pair of eagles.
+
+Such a spectacle would probably break the heart of an orthodox British
+gamekeeper; to preserve any fair head of game in presence of such an
+array of "vermin"--both powerful raptores and cunning egg-thieves--he
+would certainly assert to be impossible. So, in England, it probably
+would be; yet here our game-books record bags varying from 150 to 300
+partridge, besides other game, in a day, and totals of from 1,000 to
+1,200 head and upwards in a fortnight's shooting. Yet those who advocate
+the _status quo_ in nature and condemn dogmatically any interference
+therewith by the hand of man, would be wrong in jumping to the
+conclusion that the co-existence in Spain of a considerable head of game
+with a host of their most powerful enemies, is any solid substantiation
+of their theories, in a _general_ sense.
+
+To this question of nature's balance of life we may devote a little
+space; it is seldom so simple as at first sight may appear. Here in
+Spain its solution depends on factors some of which do not exist and
+would have, consequently, no bearing at home; but the general features
+of the particular case in point may be summed up in three lines: (1)
+Spain is a land teeming with reptile-life; (2) The reptiles in the
+aggregate are the most deadly enemies to game; and (3) it is upon
+reptiles that the raptorial birds habitually prey.
+
+The large eagles, it is true, prefer rabbits and partridges to anything
+else; but the "catch" of their smaller relatives, the Booted and
+Serpent-Eagles, the Kites, Buzzards and Hawks, is composed chiefly of
+reptiles--lizards, snakes, blindworms, salamanders, and the like--as
+well as the larger insects, such as locusts, cicadas, scorpions,
+grasshoppers, the huge horned scarabaei and other coleoptera of which so
+great a variety abound in Southern Spain. At the end of this chapter we
+annex a brief analysis, the result of a number of post-mortem
+examinations of the crops and stomachs of various raptorial birds, which
+shows pretty conclusively that while game, etc., is included in their
+_menu_, by far the greater portion of their attack is directed against
+the reptile race--itself the most pernicious to game and all the
+defenceless creation. It is, in fact, a warfare of raptor _versus_
+raptorem, of feathered freebooter against scaled marauder, and the
+harmless and peaceful balance of creation benefit by that internecine
+state of war.
+
+[Illustration: EYED-LIZARD AND SERPENT-EAGLE]
+
+The destruction that is wrought by the larger reptiles is difficult to
+exaggerate; both snakes and lizards are inveterate egg-stealers, and
+also devour large quantities of young game, whether furred or feathered,
+besides other creatures. Gliding noiselessly, rapidly, and with an
+infinite stealth, their approach is imperceptible, whether through
+brushwood or scrub, through shallow water or yielding sand, whether
+above ground or below--they penetrate the deep burrows of rabbit or
+Bee-eater, and scale the loftiest fortresses of tree-nesting species.
+Equally at home on the ground or amongst the topmost branches, nothing
+can well escape the larger serpents and saurians. Were they not held in
+check by nature's counterpoise, hardly a young rabbit could survive, or
+a Partridge, Quail, or Wild Duck succeed in rearing their broods.
+Neither ground nor tree-nesting birds are safe: we have seen a Cushat's
+nest which in the morning had contained its two eggs, occupied towards
+evening by the sleeping coils of a green Eyed Lizard (_Lacerta
+ocellata_), measuring nearly a yard in length, and thousands of
+promising families are yearly called into existence only to provide
+sustenance for cold-blooded, scaly saurians.
+
+Here are three or four examples extracted from our note-book:--
+
+"_April 23rd._--While on the sand-ridge overlooking the laguna de
+Santolalla, watching a pair of Marbled Ducks, some Crested Grebes, etc.,
+heard subterranean scuffling and rumblings. Presently two rabbits
+bolted, and from a hole close by emerged the writhing tail of a great
+green lizard, backing out, and dragging, by an engulfed hind leg, a
+half-grown rabbit, too terrified to squeal. In some rushes we lost sight
+of the reptile, but two minutes later, put him out and shot him. The
+hapless rabbit was then gorged--head downwards."
+
+"_May 18th._--Dug out a Bee-eater's colony--some of the tunnels quite
+eight or ten feet deep. In two of the nests found snakes, coiled up. One
+big black fellow entombed the remains of four or five Bee-eaters,
+swallowed entire, besides many eggs. The smaller snake contained eggs
+and a brace of Field-mice."
+
+"_May 23rd._--Heard two Partridges in a great state of excitement;
+coming up, saw a snake in the act of devouring a half-feathered chick.
+The brute, which only measured three feet, nine inches, already
+contained four young Partridges!"
+
+"_June 9th._--Shot a huge _Coluber_, six feet two inches, greatly
+distended in centre. On opening him found two nearly full-grown rabbits,
+swallowed whole."
+
+Under such conditions, the presence of the hawk-tribe is an actual
+advantage to the game-preserver--they are his under-keepers and
+vermin-trappers. No doubt, were it possible, _first_, to put down
+effectually the rapacious reptiles, and _then_ to thin the ranks of the
+rapacious birds, the result would be a prodigious increase in the
+numbers of the game and other defenceless creatures on which they prey.
+This--_mutatis mutandis_--is practically what game-preservation has
+accomplished in England; but in Spain the physical conditions are
+different, and it is more than questionable if any similar measure of
+success could there be attained. Not Don Quixote himself ever conceived
+an enterprise more chimerical than the extermination of the snakes in La
+Mancha or Andalucia.
+
+[Illustration: THE EAGLE'S SWOOP.]
+
+With the first of the daylight the eagles and most of the larger
+raptores turn out for their morning hunt, and during the heat of the day
+retire to enjoy a siesta on the peak of some lofty oak or pine, where
+they remain conspicuously perched for hours together. Towards evening
+predatory operations are generally resumed. It is curious to observe
+their different methods of going to work; the Kites sweep about with
+buoyant, desultory flight, not unlike large gulls; the _Circaeetus_
+wheels in wide circles over the cistus-scrub; Montagu's Harrier hunts
+with impetuous flight, in long, straight bee-lines close over the
+_mancha_, always appearing about to alight but not doing so. But for
+systematic searching-out of a breadth of land, none compare with the
+Imperial Eagle; usually in pairs, these noble tyrants choose a line of
+country, and with wide sweeps to right and left, crossing and recrossing
+each other at the central point like well-trained setters, they beat
+miles of scrub in a few hours, while a Buzzard or Marsh-Harrier will
+hover and circle round a single spot and spend half a day over a few
+acres of rushes. Nothing can well escape the eagles; shortly one of the
+pair detects the hidden game--for an instant his flight is checked to
+assure a deadly aim, then with collapsed wings, and a rushing sound
+which is distinctly audible a quarter of a mile away, he dashes headlong
+to earth. A second or two later, he rises with loud vociferations, and a
+hapless rabbit suspended from his yellow claws. Their short, sharp bark
+is repeatedly uttered by the eagles while hunting. Rabbits seem to
+constitute nine-tenths of their prey, to judge from the golgotha of
+these little animals' skulls below their nests.
+
+The Stone-Curlew (_OEdicnemus crepitans_) is another fine species
+characteristic of the scrub, where it is resident or at least is found
+throughout the year, and their rectilineal footprints are everywhere
+visible on the sandy deserts. On these flat plains they are most
+difficult of access, and if winged, run like a hare; towards evening
+they become very noisy, piping something like a Curlew in spring--on the
+night of April 16th, while skinning a lynx by the light of our fire, the
+air around seemed full of them, their vociferations resounding from
+every side. We found the first nest, or rather a single egg lying on
+bare sand, on April 18th. We have come across these birds in widely
+different situations; high out on the barren stony mountains of the
+Minho, in Northern Portugal, packs of them frequented the few damp spots
+along the courses of the old Roman aqueducts--how few such weak spots
+were, testifies to the solidity of these ancient works. This was in
+November. Their local name there was "Mountain Curlew" (Masarico de
+montes). Apropos of these hills, the following rather curious incidents
+are perhaps worth recording. Far out among the boulder-strewn ridges,
+while Red-leg shooting, we used to find numbers of Green Woodpeckers
+miles away from trees--they were attracted thither by the swarms of
+ants. Nightjars (_Caprimulgus europaeus_) and Little Owls also abode
+there; the latter fluttered out from under one's feet, and after a most
+un-owlish, up-and-down flight, would dive back under some big boulder,
+more like a fish than a bird. Small flights of Teal also resorted to
+these heights during the day, sitting among the heather, and returning
+to the marshes at night.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+FOOD OF SPANISH RAPTORIAL BIRDS--Analyses of examinations of their
+crops--as follows:--
+
+ (_See_ p. 259.)
+
+ KITES examined, 21.
+ Snakes, Lizards, Blindworms, &c 9 cases.
+ Locusts, elytra of coleoptera, &c 9 "
+ Bones and remains of small birds 5 "
+ Rabbits and young Redlegs (1 each) 2 "
+ Egg-shells 0 "
+
+ Note.--We have shot Black Kites fairly crammed with
+ Locusts.
+
+ HARRIERS examined, 17.
+ Frogs, Snakes and other reptiles 8 cases.
+ Egg-shells 7 "
+ Scorpions, coleoptera and other insects 3 "
+ Game (1 Quail, 1 young and 1 putrid rabbit) 3 "
+
+ The Marsh-Harrier in spring seeks frogs, eggs, and young
+ birds; in winter, frogs, wounded birds, and chance reptiles.
+
+ Montagu's Harrier takes chiefly the lesser reptiles and eggs--occasionally
+ rabbits--and departs entirely in winter.
+
+ LARGE EAGLES examined, 8.
+ Rabbits, Partridge, &c. 8 cases.
+ Reptiles, eggs, or insects 0 "
+
+ SMALL EAGLES examined, 10.
+ Rabbits and other game 4 cases.
+ Reptiles (no eggs or insects) 4 "
+ Small birds 3 "
+ Sundries (1 young eagle! _See_ p. 215) 1 "
+
+The large eagles prey on game all the year round; the smaller species
+chiefly on reptiles and small birds, secondarily on game. In winter the
+latter depart to Africa.
+
+FALCONS.--The smaller species are chiefly insectivorous--the Lesser
+Kestrel and Eleanora Falcon exclusively so. The Common Kestrel and Hobby
+also take small lizards and snakes. From the crop of one of the large
+and powerful Falcons (_Falco punicus_) which, when shot, was in the act
+of pursuing a Hare, we have taken nearly a score of Blindworms.
+
+It is corroborative of the predominance of reptiles and insects in their
+diet, that so many of the raptores leave Spain almost entirely in
+winter. Both the Booted and Serpent-Eagles, Black Kite, Montagu's
+Harrier, Lesser Kestrel, and others, migrate at that season to Africa.
+
+[Illustration: BLACK STORK.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+BIRD-LIFE OF THE SPANISH SPRING-TIME.
+
+III.--BY LAKE AND LAGOON.
+
+
+Spain is not a land of lakes; the so-called lagoons are often mere
+accumulations of flood-water, the result of the winter's rains which
+occupy shallow basins, or swamp the low-lying lands. Many of these
+hybernal lagoons dry up entirely as the hot weather sets in; others
+remain in greatly reduced proportions, hidden, as a rule, amidst reeds
+and dense aquatic herbage.
+
+Few Spanish lakes cover any considerable area, though the Lagunas de
+Janda, near Trafalgar, those of Fuentepiedra near Malaga, and the
+Albufera of Valencia, are exceptions.
+
+The Laguna de Janda, an inland sea of yellow muddy water, surrounded by
+belts of sedge and cane-brake stretching away for miles, is a well-known
+wildfowl resort, abounding in winter with Grey Geese, ducks, and divers
+of many kinds, besides Snipe, Rails, Bitterns, and aquatic birds in all
+their varieties. The dry plateaux on the north are a notable resort of
+Little Bustard; and large bags of Quail and Golden Plover are there, at
+times, secured. But this is well-known ground, and having been described
+by others, we will only add that in spring Janda is noteworthy as one of
+the breeding-stations of the Crane (_Grus communis_), which still nests
+in some numbers amidst the vast area of reed-beds and thick swamp that
+lie towards Casa Vieja.
+
+The nests of the Crane are huge accumulations of flags and aquatic
+plants built up in the shallow marsh, and hidden amidst the growing
+reeds, which in spring completely conceal the water. The Crane lays two
+handsome eggs, greenish in hue, but suffused with brown splashes and
+obsolete shades, about the end of April. Formerly the Crane used also to
+breed in the marismas of the Guadalquivir, but we have not met with it
+there of recent years, and fear it is already banished for ever from
+that resort. It may sincerely be hoped that these majestic waterfowl,
+whose stately appearance and resonant trumpet-note lend so peculiar a
+charm to the wild solitudes they frequent, may meet with more
+considerate treatment in their last stronghold at Janda.
+
+Of the Mar Menor of Cartagena, the Albufera of Valencia, and other
+noteworthy wildfowl resorts lying outside our limits, we can speak with
+less certainty, not having had such opportunities of exploration as in
+the districts to the S. and W. The Albufera appears to be the western
+limit of the range of the handsome Red-crested Pochard (_Fuligula
+rufina_), a duck we have sought in vain in Andalucia; but with this
+exception, and that of a few stragglers, such as _Hydrochelidon
+leucoptera_ and other species of more Eastern distribution, the spring
+avifauna of these localities does not materially differ from that of the
+more western marismas and lagoons described either in the present
+chapter or in those entitled "The Baetican Wilderness."
+
+The lakes of Donana are of no great extent, the largest being the
+Lagunas de Santolalla, and the broad, reed-choked Rocina de la Madre
+extending towards Rocio, all of which we have explored at different
+seasons.
+
+Riding towards the small lagoon of Zopiton on April 16th, its surface
+was seen to be dotted all over with waterfowl--ducks and divers, coots
+and grebes. Zopiton is a deep, reed-fringed pool where we have often
+looked in vain for _Fuligula rufina_. On our approach, several Mallards
+and Gadwall flew up: I shot a Gadwall drake from horseback, whereupon
+there was commotion among the denizens of that sequestered lagoon--ducks
+rose splashing and quacking on all sides, coots "skittered" across the
+surface, grebes vanished amidst sedges, whence a Marsh-Harrier soared
+from her nest. Among the ducks which whistled around and overhead were
+many of a small dark species unknown to us. These appeared loth to
+leave, and after the others had disappeared, continued circling round,
+high in the air, with rapid rustling flight like that of a Golden-eye.
+By creeping out to a rush-clad point we lay concealed between sedges and
+a thicket of briar, and here soon shot several of these ducks, as well
+as Mallard, Garganey, and another Gadwall or two. The unknown birds
+proved to be the White-eyed Pochard, or Ferruginous Duck (_Fuligula
+nyroca_) which evidently intended to breed here, though a search for
+their nests proved futile. A month later, however (in May), we obtained
+nests both of this Pochard and of the Gadwall, both built among rushes
+on dry ground. The Gadwall--inappropriately termed in Spanish "_Silbon
+real_" (_i.e._ king-wigeon, or whistler)--is a very silent duck, and
+always seen in pairs. In May we found them singly, those shot then being
+all drakes rising from small sedgy pools.
+
+The Garganey are fairly numerous on these lagoons in spring; yet
+though--especially in wet seasons--they certainly breed there, we have
+never discovered a nest. The marshmen (who know the different kinds of
+duck as well as most people) assert positively that in _very wet_
+springs a few pairs of the Common Teal also remain to breed.
+
+[Illustration: Plate XXXII.
+
+MALLARDS AND FERRUGINOUS DUCKS--ALAMILLO.
+
+Page 268.]
+
+Among the tall _juncales_, or reed-beds, in mid-water, abode numerous
+aquatic warblers--notably the Great Sedge-Warbler, Cetti's, and the
+Reed-Warbler, the loud grating song of the former is incessant: but
+owing to the depth of water and mud, and the maze of rank weeds, such
+spots are difficult to explore. The Melodious Warbler (_Hypolais
+polyglotta_) nests on bushes and sallows on the drier ground: while the
+little Fantails (_Cisticola_) build their pretty purse-shaped nests on
+the shorter rushes along the margin. A peculiarity of this tiny bird is
+that it lays eggs of wholly different colours--though not in the same
+nest--some clutches being pale green, some blue, others of a soft
+rose-colour, a few pure white. The elaborate way in which the nest
+itself is compacted of intertwined grasses and laced on to a tuft of
+rush is no less remarkable. Its Spanish name is _Bolsicon_--a little
+purse, and the species remains all the winter. Among the tall _carices_,
+floating in about three feet of water, was the nest of the
+Marsh-Harrier: it resembled that of a Coot, and had, perhaps, been built
+originally by that bird, many of which bred there.
+
+While driving the ducks, five birds of peculiar appearance flew
+over--they were Glossy Ibis, and passed within shot of Felipe, who,
+however, failed to stop them. This was the only instance of our meeting
+with the Ibis--a singular circumstance, as in wet seasons they nest in
+numbers in the upper marisma. Their deep blue eggs have several times
+been brought to us while bustard-shooting on the Isla Menor, &c., the
+boys who brought them saying the nests were in the thick _canas_, and
+not on low trees, where the small herons breed. Very curiously, in all
+the time we spent in the marisma, we never again saw this bird in
+spring, or found a single nest ourselves.
+
+A ride of a few miles from Zopiton across the sandy heath-land brings us
+to the larger lagunas de Santolalla, where numerous wildfowl assemble in
+spring. Besides Mallards, Gadwalls, and Ferruginous Ducks, already
+described, were many Pintails, Garganeys, Teal, and the pretty Marbled
+Duck--(_Querquedula marmorata_). The latter nests at Santolalla at the
+end of May: but more numerously in the open marisma, laying ten or
+twelve eggs, well hidden among the clumps of samphire. Some of the
+Pintails (which are the most abundant of the winter wildfowl) linger
+late in spring: for on May 8th we observed a "bunch" of a dozen or so at
+Santolalla, all drakes, their snow-white throats glistening in the
+sunshine. Near them a pair of Shoveller drakes were swimming, and
+presently the binocular rested on six of the most extraordinary wildfowl
+we ever met with--gambolling and splashing about on the water, chasing
+each other, now above now beneath its surface like a school of
+porpoises, they appeared half birds, half water-tortoises, with which
+the lagoon abounds. We were well sheltered by a fringe of sedges, and
+presently the strangers entered a small reed-margined bight, swimming
+very deep, only their turtle-shaped backs and heavy heads in sight. Here
+we crept down on them, and as they sat, splashing and preening in the
+shallow water, stopped three--two dead, the third escaping, winged. They
+proved to be a duck and drake of the White-fronted Duck--_Erismatura
+mersa_--heavily built diving-ducks, round in the back, broad and flat in
+the chest, with small wings like a Grebe, and long, stiff tails like a
+Cormorant--the latter, being carried underwater as a rudder, is not
+visible when the bird is swimming. The enormously swollen bill of the
+drake--pale waxen blue in colour--completed as singular a picture of a
+feathered fowl as the writer ever came across: they were in fact no less
+remarkable in form and colour, now we had them in hand, than they had at
+first appeared in the water. The head and neck of the drake were jet
+black, with white face and cheeks: otherwise their whole plumage was
+dark ferruginous (not white below, as represented in "Bree") and with a
+silky, grebe-like sheen.
+
+These singular ducks, we found, were well known to the _guardas_ as
+"patos porrones" (porron--a knob), and subsequently found several pairs
+at the Laguna de Medina, a lake near Jerez, where, on the 23rd May, they
+were evidently breeding. The lake was also occupied "by numbers of the
+Great Crested Grebe (_Podicipes cristatus_), quaint-looking birds in
+their full summer-dress. The nests of the Little Grebe may be found
+floating in every rushy pool.
+
+[Illustration: Plate XXXIII.
+
+WHITE-FRONTED DUCK (ERISMATURA MERSA)--Santolalla, May 8th, 1883.
+
+Page 270.]
+
+The width of the lagoon would barely exceed half-a-mile; its shores all
+furrowed by wild boar in their search for _grillos_, or mole-crickets,
+and dotted with the skeletons of water-tortoises, and beyond its
+glancing waters rolled stretches of grey scrub and heath, backed in the
+distance by sand-dunes and corrales, the outliers of the desolate
+_arenales_ that extend to the sea-coast. Beneath a straggling belt of
+pines there were sheltering from the mid-day heat a group of
+wild-bred cattle; and a little apart stood three or four big bulls of
+the fighting breed:--formidable beasts that demand a wide berth. More
+shaggy cattle, knee-deep in water, were dreamily ruminating, each form
+surmounted by a white bird, the Buff-backed Heron--in Spanish
+_Agarrapatosa_ or tick-eater--some apparently asleep, others busily
+searching for prey. Nearer still, among the islanded patches of sedge
+and carices, stalked a pair of Little Egrets, their long, thin necks
+arched with infinite grace, and heads poised to strike with deadly
+precision any darting larvae or water-beetle they detect among the
+floating weeds.
+
+The heron-tribe is strongly represented in Andalucia; in spring and
+summer almost every European form adorns these remote and marshy
+regions. During May the Buff-backed Herons were flying all over the
+plains in packs of a score to fifty or more, apparently in quest of a
+settlement; the pretty little Squacco Herons had then shifted their
+quarters from the marisma to the rushy lagoons, and many nests were
+ready for eggs in the _juncales_; but all this group breed late, none
+laying much before June.
+
+Since we first visited these regions, now nearly twenty years ago, a sad
+diminution has taken place in the numbers of these beautiful Herons and
+Egrets, due in great measure to the cruel and thoughtless fashion of
+wearing their plumes in ladies' hats. Let ladies humanely remember that
+these plumes are only attained in the _nesting_ season, when to kill the
+male means the sacrifice of a whole family. Fortunately there remain
+sequestered nooks, sacred as yet to wild nature. Both in the
+neighbourhood of Almonte and in certain marshy regions of vast
+cane-brake and wooded swamp on the Estremenian border, there survive
+unknown and unmolested colonies of these graceful creatures, where for
+many a year to come the Egrets, Buff-backed and Squacco Herons, the
+Night-Heron and Little Bittern, Spoonbill, Glossy Ibis and other "rare
+birds" may yet find a sanctuary protected by natural fastnesses, and by
+legions of leeches and mosquitoes that render human life well nigh
+intolerable. The very toads are there as big as small footstools; the
+natives yellow and sunken-eyed, with hollow cheeks and parchment skin.
+
+[Illustration: BUFF-BACKED HERON.]
+
+Here, when summer-heats provoke miasma and fetid airs, languor-laden,
+from the morass, the herons congregate. In June their slight nests crowd
+the sallow-brakes and clumps of gnarled alders and aspens islanded in
+marsh, and barricaded with bramble and vicious thorny _zarzas_. Amidst
+umbrageous gloom the Night-Heron and Bittern dream away the hours of
+daylight, the former among the branches, the latter in thickest sedge.
+The Bittern lays its pheasant-like eggs in April, often in March; the
+Little Bittern not till June. It is difficult to fix a date for the
+rest--so uncertain are they, and so dependent on the seasons and the
+quantity of water in the marismas. We have eggs of the Night-Heron taken
+as early as May 20th--another year none were laid till June 8th. From
+this latter date onwards is perhaps the average time for eggs of that
+species, as well as those of the Egret, Buff-back, and Squacco Herons,
+and the Little Bittern.
+
+So retiring are the nocturnal species that it is difficult to flush them
+without a dog; yet they cannot compare, in this respect, with their
+neighbours, the Crakes and Rails, which also abound in the Spanish
+morass--the Water-Rail and Spotted Crake most numerous, Baillon's Crake
+rather less so, and the Little Crake the scarcest. All these are pointed
+and 'roded' keenly by native dogs, but their skulking powers are a match
+for the staunchest. _Mataperros_--"kill-dogs"--is their Spanish
+nickname, their thin, curiously compressed bodies resembling in section
+that of one's hand held vertically, enabling them to glide like rats
+through the thickest growth of flags and aquatic herbage.
+
+The nests of all the Rails are hard to find; but to identify the precise
+owner of each is a thousand-fold harder. Nests and eggs of all being
+closely alike, an _unidentified_ clutch is worthless; but the man who
+can work this out knee-deep amidst mud and stagnant water, under a
+broiling sun, has patience that nothing can withstand, nor any obstacle
+resist.
+
+During May a clamorous element is added to the bird-life of these
+lagoons by the nesting-colonies of Terns, which hover round the
+intruder, filling the air with their harsh vociferations. Santolalla is
+a stronghold of the Whiskered and Black Terns (_H. hybrida_ and _H.
+fissipes_) whose nests are built on the water-lilies and floating
+water-weeds. There are other large colonies in the open marisma, where
+the Gull-billed and the Lesser Terns also nest, the former in some
+numbers.
+
+[Illustration: MARSH HARRIER--VERY OLD MALE.]
+
+June in Spain is a month of intense heat--heat of that fiery high-dried
+sort that scorches as an open furnace. In June, as a Spanish proverb
+says--"Nothing but a dog or an Englishman" ventures out of doors; nor
+from an ornithological point of view is there much inducement to do so.
+The teeming variety of bird-life which characterizes April and May is
+now conspicuously absent. Migration is suspended, and there is no
+movement of passage-birds. There is no longer the accustomed number of
+large hawks hunting the _campina_, and even those birds which remain
+seem to keep out of sight, sheltering from the blazing heat.
+
+Perhaps the most interesting birds at this season are the newly-fledged
+young of the Raptores. The young Imperial Eagles are of a beautiful
+tawny colour, and during the mid-day heat frequent the trees where they
+were hatched. We also obtained young Kites in the same way--very
+handsome birds, much ruddier than the old ones in April. The young of
+_M. migrans_, on the other hand, are less pleasing than their parents,
+being, in fact, a pale, rather "washed-out" reproduction of them.
+Towards the end of the month (June) the young Montagu's Harriers are on
+the wing; they have dark brown backs, each feather edged with chestnut,
+a white nape, and orange-tawny breast. Many of the young of the
+Marsh-Harrier are uniformly very dark, bronze-black, with rich orange
+crowns--strikingly handsome birds. Some have also patches of the latter
+colour on the scapulars, others on the breast--they vary greatly, no two
+are alike. This species is not easy to understand; one imagines that
+these very dark specimens are all young birds; that the old females are
+lighter brown with yellow heads, and that the very old males acquire
+half-blue wings and tail--I shot one of these latter with the whole head
+pure white, each feather streaked centrally with black. (_See_ photo at
+p. 242.) But how is one to account for an individual--otherwise
+uniformly black--having a perfectly developed blue tail and secondaries?
+
+During June we were surprised to find the Green Sandpiper tolerably
+numerous in the Coto Donana. It was a very solitary species, a single
+bird frequenting almost each small pool or water-hole far out among the
+scrub. We at first imagined the females must be sitting, but all
+attempts to find the nests were of course futile. The Wood-Sandpiper was
+observed, on passage, in May.
+
+As the long summer day draws to its close, the infinite variety of
+nocturnal sounds which, during the short twilight, suddenly awake into
+being, strikes strangely on a northern ear. During the gloaming the air
+has been alive with the darting forms of bats, terns, and pratincoles,
+of swifts and swallows, all busily hawking after insects or slow-flying
+beetles. But before dark these disappear. Of crepuscular birds, the
+first to commence the nocturnal concert is the Russet-necked Nightjar,
+which abounds all over the scrub; a few minutes later, from the
+cork-trees, resounds the note of the Little Owl, then the sharp ringing
+_ki-y[=o][=u]_ of Scop's Owl--both in sight, flickering against the
+darkening sky; while far and near among the grass the loud rattle of the
+mole-cricket starts like an alarum and from every pool the united croaks
+of literally millions of frogs form, as it were, a background of sound
+resembling the distant roar of a mighty city.
+
+[Illustration: SUMMER EVENING--OWLS AND MOTHS.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+THE SPANISH GYPSY.
+
+NOTES ON THE HISTORY OF THE "GITANOS."
+
+
+The mysterious Rommany race which overruns every nation in Europe, but
+intermingles with none, has always abounded in Spain, and particularly
+in Andalucia, a land which is peculiarly favourable to the Ishmaelitish
+propensities of these human pariahs--as congenial to predatory wild men
+as to the wild beasts we elsewhere describe. Thoroughly typical objects
+both on the byeways and deserts of Spain, and of the animated scenes at
+her rural feasts and fairs, to which the gypsies flock like vultures to
+a carcase, it would be inappropriate here to omit all mention of this
+singular race, even though it may be impossible for us to add anything
+new to the exhaustive description of the Spanish gypsy narrated by
+Borrow in "The Zincali," a work based on intimate acquaintance with the
+gitanos and their language. To it we are indebted for much historic and
+ethnological information respecting the gypsy race, and take the liberty
+of quoting two or three passages from its pages.[55]
+
+First appearing on Spanish soil during the early decades of the
+fifteenth century, after being driven from land to land, the Zingari
+outcasts speedily found a congenial home--if such a term is applicable
+to nomadic vagabonds--amidst the lone and sparsely-peopled regions of
+Iberia.
+
+Whence they had originally come--whether from Egypt, as they themselves
+averred and as their Spanish name imports, or from India, as the term
+Zincali indicates--it is not our intention to inquire.[56] Suffice it
+that nearly five centuries ago, this invasion of tinkers, horse-thieves,
+sorcerers, and all-round rogues poured into Europe, and during the long
+period that has since elapsed have maintained themselves there--not, it
+is true, in luxury, rather in rags and apparent poverty--by means of
+robbery and deceit, at the expense of the various peoples upon whom, as
+a swarm of wasps or locusts, they have thought good to descend. All this
+time, too, they have maintained intact both their racial individuality,
+their peculiar language, and their inveterate habits of lying and
+thieving.
+
+"Who are these gitanos?" querulously asks the learned Lorenzo Palminero
+more than three hundred years ago ("El Estudioso Cortesano," Alcala,
+1587). "Who are these Gitanos? I answer: these vile people first began
+to show themselves in Germany in the year 1417, where they call them
+Tartars, or Gentiles; in Italy they are termed Ciani. [In Spain the
+Arabs (Moors) knew the gypsies by only one name, _charami_ = thieves.]
+They pretend that they come from Lower Egypt, and that they wander about
+as a penance, and to prove this they show letters from the King of
+Poland. They lie, however, for they do not lead the lives of penitents,
+but of dogs and thieves. A learned person [himself] in the year 1540
+prevailed upon them, by dint of much persuasion, to show him the King's
+letter, and from it he gathered that the time of penance had already
+expired. He spoke to them in the Egyptian tongue. They said, however, as
+it was a long time since their departure from Egypt, they could no
+longer understand it. He then spoke to them in the vulgar Greek, such as
+is used at present in the Morea and Archipelago. Some understood it,
+others did not, so that as all did not understand it, we may conclude
+that the language they use is a feigned one, got up by thieves for the
+purpose of concealing their robberies, like the jargon of blind
+beggars."
+
+From their earliest appearance in Spain the roving bands of the Rommany
+were found to be a public nuisance; but so rapidly grew the evil weed
+and took root in the soil, that by the middle of the fifteenth century
+the gypsies had established a rudely-organized system of violence,
+robbery and roguery from Biscay to the Mediterranean. The country roads
+were unsafe, infested with dark-skinned highwaymen; while rural
+districts were subjected to wholesale depredation, bands of these
+outcasts settling themselves in the adjacent hills, wastes, or forests,
+whence they plundered and virtually beleaguered the sparse and
+defenceless villages of all the country around. Once established amidst
+the sierras and wildernesses, it was no easy matter to dislodge them, or
+even to hold them in check. Spain has ever been a land of the
+_guerilla_--little war--and of the _guerillero_; and the gypsies, though
+by no means a warlike race, were not lacking in courage and in those
+qualities of hardihood and dash which constitute the most dangerous
+_guerilleros_. They possessed, moreover, the strength of union, an
+Ishmaelitish bond of brotherhood which held the outlaws together, while
+dividing them as by a great gulf from the peoples amidst whom they had
+come to dwell. They had also their secret language. Neither civil nor
+military power could make itself effective against "Will-o'-the-wisps,"
+who are here to-day, gone to-morrow, whose homes were the forest-thicket
+and mountain-cave, who, with their fast and trusty horses and donkeys
+(their "stock-in-trade") could transport their whole tribe in dead of
+night to distant places with a speed almost equal to that of the wild
+beasts of the sierras, to whom they were so near akin.
+
+The nominal employment of the gypsies was that of tinkers, workers in
+iron, and horse-traffickers: under which guise they really subsisted by
+cattle-lifting and horse-stealing, either by force, or fraud, according
+as circumstances might suggest. The female gypsies, or gitanas, more
+than doubled the ill-gotten gains of their husbands by the arts of
+sorcery and divination, by selling charms and love-philtres, stealing by
+legerdemain, and exercising the various branches of what are termed the
+"occult sciences"--in other words, practising upon the silly credulity
+of the weaker portion of humanity--as well as by other and more
+loathsome avocations. The credulity of their victims appears incredible,
+though it is hardly less marvellous than the tact and effrontery
+displayed by the gypsy women in their cozening and charlatan tricks.
+Their knowledge of human nature and how to reach its weak points, was
+remarkable in a race so low, so degraded, and wholly illiterate. They
+possessed the cunning and boldness of the wild beast, and combined with
+it a hatred of the "Busne," or Gentile, which the wild beast has not.
+
+The bitterness of hatred which was cherished by the gitanos towards all
+of gentile race, appears incomprehensible, unless it springs from some
+old-time "first cause," the nature of which is long forgotten.
+Treacherous, cruel and vindictive, they had the wit to conceal their
+ill-will beneath soft words, and thus obtained means of committing
+atrocities against the "gentile," the records of which make one shudder.
+
+Amongst the various devices employed by the gitanos to plunder their
+victims, may be mentioned the following:--
+
+_Hokkano Baro._--The great trick, or swindle, varying from the
+"confidence trick" in its multifarious forms, up to the boldest and most
+barefaced deceptions, often on a grand scale.
+
+_La Baji_, or, in Spanish, _buena ventura_.--Fortune-telling, by
+chiromancy, necromancy, and other divinations.
+
+_Ustilar Pastelas._--Stealing by legerdemain or sleight of hand.
+
+_Querelar Nasela._--The evil eye.
+
+_Drao_ = poison.--Both these latter devices were employed to produce
+epidemics among men or flocks, when the reputed medical or veterinary
+skill of the gitanos was called into requisition; and, being aware of
+the origin of the disease, they seldom failed to effect its cure.
+
+The gitanos were, and are divided into two classes: one section have
+more or less settled colonies in the Spanish towns and cities, where
+they dwell in quarters apart from the natives, known as _gitanerias_,
+wherein they ply their trade of tinkers, horse-dealers and shearers,
+sorcerers, and general thieves; and from whence, in pursuance of their
+inveterate vagabondism, they sally forth from time to time to attend
+distant fairs and markets to dispose of their stolen goods; and, as
+occasion arises, to perpetrate fresh crimes. The other section is more
+exclusively nomadic, roaming at large over the wilds of Spain, having no
+home save the shelter of forest or sierra, and to some extent actually
+migratory.
+
+The daily life of the Spanish gypsy has always been characterized by a
+squalor and degradation exceeding that of the residuum of any European
+nation. They appear to have been devoid of the faintest conception of
+religion beyond that undefined sense of superstition which is common to
+savage races all over the world, or to possess any sense of morality,
+decency, or self-respect. Their food was of the foulest--they shrank not
+from carrion, and have been accused, apparently not without reason, of
+cannibalism, for which in early days many a gitano swung from the
+gibbet. Male and female alike, they were adepts at devilry and crime of
+every degree, yet amidst such a category of evil, they still possessed
+the one singular virtue of esteeming purity in their women. We quote the
+following picture of life in a gitaneria from Borrow ("Zincali," i., p.
+76 _et seq._):--"The gitanerias at even-fall were frequently resorted to
+by individuals widely differing in station from the inmates of these
+places--we allude to the young and dissolute nobility and hidalgos of
+Spain. The gypsy women and girls were the principal attraction to these
+visitors. Wild and singular as these females are in their appearance,
+there can be no doubt, for the fact has been frequently proved, that
+they are capable of exciting passions of the most ardent kind,
+particularly in the bosoms of those who are not of their race, which
+passion of course becomes the more violent when the almost utter
+impossibility of gratifying it is known. No females in the world can be
+more licentious in word or gesture, in dance and song, than the gitanas,
+but there they stop; and so of old, if their titled visitors presumed to
+seek for more, an unsheathed dagger or gleaming knife speedily repulsed
+those who expected that the gift most dear among the sect of the Roma
+was within the reach of a Busne.
+
+"Such visitors, however, were always encouraged to a certain point, and
+by this and various other means the gitanos acquired connections which
+frequently stood them in good stead in the hour of need. What availed it
+to the honest labourers of the neighbourhood, or the citizens of the
+town to make complaints to the _Corregidor_ respecting thefts and frauds
+committed by the gitanos when perhaps the sons of that very Corregidor
+frequented the nightly dances at the gitaneria, and were deeply
+enamoured of some of the dark-eyed singing girls? What availed
+complaints when perhaps a gypsy sybil, the mother of those very girls,
+had free admission to the house of the Corregidor at all times and
+seasons, and spa'ed the _buena ventura_ of his daughters, promising them
+counts and dukes, or Andalucian knights in marriage, or prepared
+philtres for his lady by which she was always to reign supreme in the
+affections of her husband? And above all, what availed it to the
+plundered to complain that his mule or horse had been stolen when the
+gitano robber, perhaps the husband of the sybil and the father of the
+black-eyed Gitanillas, was at that moment actually in treaty with my
+lord the Corregidor himself, to supply him with some splendid,
+thick-maned, long-tailed steed at a small price, to be obtained, as the
+reader may well suppose, by an infraction of the laws? The favour and
+protection which the gitanos experienced from persons of high rank is
+alluded to in the Spanish laws, and can only be accounted for by the
+motives above detailed."
+
+By the middle of the fifteenth century the bands of the Rommany had
+become a serious danger in rural Spain, and their ability to act
+daringly in concert was demonstrated by their attempt to massacre the
+whole populace and sack the town of Logrono. That town at the moment was
+stricken down by a pestilence, which it was more than suspected had been
+caused by the Zincales themselves having poisoned with their _drao_ the
+springs whence Logrono was supplied with water. Already, before the
+gypsy assault, the greater part of the populace had perished of the
+disease, and the annihilation of the survivors was only averted by the
+singular foresight and energy of one man--Francisco Alvarez. This
+Alvarez in his early life was said to have been admitted to the
+community of a gitano tribe, to have married a daughter of its chief,
+and eventually to have become the chief himself. Around the details of
+the affair hangs some uncertainty; but the historic fact that the
+gitanos actually attempted the massacre and plunder of a considerable
+Spanish town has been well attested, among others by Francisco de
+Cordova on his "Didascalia" (Lugduni, 1615).
+
+The beginning of the seventeenth century saw the evil still on the
+increase, despite repressive measures. Bands of these human fiends, many
+hundreds strong, roamed over the highlands of Castile and Arragon, and
+were only dispersed, after plundering and devastating the country, when
+sufficient military force had at length been collected. The gypsies
+speedily searched out the richest provinces of the land--New Castile, La
+Mancha, Estremadura, Murcia, Valencia and Andalucia, and troubled but
+little the poor, wild, mountain-regions of the Asturias, Galicia, and
+the hill-country of Biscay.
+
+The impunity with which these people set at nought during hundreds of
+years the successive laws which were enacted for their repression, is a
+curious point in connection with their history. As early as 1499,
+Ferdinand and Isabella, at Medina del Campo, interdicted, under heavy
+penalties, their vagrant propensities; ordered them to find fixed
+occupations, and to settle in the different towns and villages within a
+short specified period. In default they were to be expelled from
+Spanish soil. This act was confirmed and supplemented with more vigorous
+penalties by Charles I. at Toledo in 1539, and again by Philip II. in
+1586, at Madrid.
+
+By an enactment of Philip IV. at Madrid, 1633, the former laws were
+confirmed, but in order still further to penalize the profession and
+race of gypsies, their dress, their language, and even the name of
+_gitanos_, were declared illegal, and suppressed under pain of servitude
+in the galleys, or banishment. The gypsies were forbidden to form
+colonies or tribes, to intermarry, or to trade at markets and fairs;
+while the local authorities were commissioned to "hunt them down, take
+and deliver them," even beyond the boundaries of their respective
+jurisdictions. Still further legal fulminations against the gypsies were
+promulgated by Charles II. in 1692 and 1695, but all alike proved
+futile.
+
+Similarly Philip V., in 1726, again increased the penalties on
+_gitanismo_, banishing the sect from Madrid and other royal cities, and
+in 1745, by a yet fiercer edict, he directed that they were to be
+"hunted down with fire and sword; that even the sanctity of the temples
+was to be invaded in their pursuit, and the gitanos dragged from the
+horns of the altar, should they flee thither for refuge."
+
+Such, during three centuries (1499-1788), was the set policy of Spain
+towards her gypsy population. They were a proscribed race, treated as
+aliens and outlaws, forbidden to intermarry, and their very name, dress,
+and language were interdicted under severe penalties. Yet in spite of it
+all the gypsies continued to flourish, to increase in numbers, and to
+ply their customary trades of thieving, sorcery, and the rest, without
+the slightest check.
+
+Whether under any circumstances these repressive measures were or were
+not the means best calculated to attain the object in view, it is at
+least certain that their failure was assured beforehand by the negligent
+way in which they were put in force; or rather by the fact they were
+never put in force at all. The gypsies, and especially the females, as
+we have already mentioned, by virtue of their divinations and certain
+other services which they rendered to the upper and ruling classes of
+Spain, had secured friends, or at least neutrals, amongst the very
+people in whose hands lay the administration of the laws. They were thus
+able to annul, and even to ridicule, the successive legal enactments
+formulated to exterminate them.
+
+Among the various reasons for the remarkable vitality of the Rommany
+sect in thus surviving centuries of oppression, there stand out
+prominently the strong tribal cohesion _inter se_ of the Zincali: their
+marriage customs and the aversion with which they regarded any alliance
+with the Busne, or Gentile. A gitano might, in rare instances, marry a
+Spanish female, but in no case did a gitana consent to take a husband
+outside her own race. Thus the _errate_--the "black blood" of the
+Rommany, on which above all they prided themselves, was preserved
+uncontaminated. Whether, had the repressive laws been vigorously carried
+out, they would have met with better results, is an open question.
+
+At length, in 1783, a fresh departure in policy was inaugurated by
+Charles III., or perhaps it would be safer to say, during the reign of
+that monarch, for he was more of a Nimrod than a statesman, and appears
+to have occupied himself with grand _batidas_ for stags, wild boars, and
+other game, rather than with the welfare of his people, and this at the
+very time when the magnificent colonial empire of Spain was gradually
+slipping from his grasp. Whoever it may have been that inspired the new
+gypsy law of 1783, its author at least recognized the failure of the
+penal decrees of the three preceding centuries, and instituted in their
+place a more humane method of dealing with the nomads.
+
+Under the new law the gypsies were, in the first place, declared "not to
+be so by nature or origin, nor to proceed from an infected root." It was
+enacted that to such of them as should abandon their distinctive mode of
+life, dress, and language, the whole share of offices, employments,
+trades and occupations, should be open equally with other Spanish
+subjects. The whole range of trade, art, science, and the professions,
+were thrown open to such of the gitanos as should abjure their former
+vagabond life with all its evil associations; and penalties were imposed
+on any who should attempt to molest them or to oppose their entry within
+the pale of civilized life.
+
+Finally, the law was declared to be equal as between a reclaimed gypsy
+and any other "vassal" of Spain: but a death-penalty was prescribed
+against such of the nomad race as declined this invitation to embrace an
+honest life, and who continued their former habits.
+
+The effect of this measure is marked, though the gitano survives. Fifty
+years of equal rights accomplished in this case what centuries of
+oppression had failed to achieve. Gitanismo is certainly not
+extinguished, but it was modified and brought more or less under
+control. The numbers of the gitanos have ever since decreased: they are
+slowly relinquishing their vagrant habits, and live more in cities and
+towns, and less in the mountains and fields. Ages, probably, would be
+required wholly to eradicate the inveterate criminality practised from
+birth by the Rommany race since unknown times--if, indeed, its entire
+eradication is possible. But certainly the humane measure of Charles
+III. during the lifetime of a man produced more tangible results than
+the persecution of preceding centuries.
+
+The gitano caste in Spain were at one time estimated at 60,000. Fifty
+years ago, after half a century of equal laws, their numbers had fallen
+to 40,000, of which one-third were inhabitants of Andalucia; while at
+the present day, even that total might probably be reduced by one-half.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+THE SPANISH GYPSY OF TO-DAY.
+
+
+Hitherto we have dealt with the subject of the Spanish gypsy in a past
+tense and from an historic point of view. It remains to add that the
+Rommany sect, though decreasing in numbers and largely divested of their
+former dangerous character, continues plentiful enough throughout Spain,
+and especially in the southern provinces, their best known colonies
+being at the Triana suburb of Seville, and in the rock-caves of the
+Alpujarras at Granada, where certain tribes form one of the "stock
+sights" familiar to travellers in Southern Spain. Though the later laws
+have checked their vagabondism, yet the instinct of Ishmael survives,
+and, especially in the summer-time, the gypsies wander over the
+Andalucian _vegas_ and flock to rural fairs, where the men drive their
+ancient trade of dealing in horses--mostly stolen, and all "faked" and
+got-up for sale, though in these matters the gypsies are perhaps no
+worse than their gentile rivals.
+
+At the fairs the wealthier gypsies also trade in precious stones and
+jewellery; the poorer in hardware, "tinkery," and the like. The
+_gitanas_, gaudily arrayed in colours of startling hues, and blazing
+with heavy golden ornaments, deal in divinations and tell the _buena
+ventura_ as of old, the younger girls ever ready to engage in their
+lissom dances and in the wild suggestive singing characteristic of the
+Rommany race.
+
+In towns and cities some of the gypsy women have a large and varied
+_clientele_: they are admitted to the best houses, and the proudest
+senoras deign to inspect the ancient lace, the bric-a-brac and jewellery
+that they bring for sale. Of antique lace, elaborately wrought, and of
+painted fans and such-like relics, the supply in Spain seems
+inexhaustible: and eventually the glib tongue of the gitana may probably
+obtain about half the price originally asked.
+
+Despite certain changes--hereafter described--the Spanish gypsy remains
+exotic to Hispania, distinct in type both of form and feature; the
+restless, suspicious eye of the hunted animal, the lithe build, and
+straight supple limbs, even among the _svelte_ and graceful Andalucians,
+still distinguish these swarthy sons of the wilderness.[57] The
+true-bred gypsy remains a distinct species. Though amenable to the same
+laws, and recognized as a Spanish subject, he is distinguishable at a
+glance. The youths undergo their allotted period of army service, but
+remain not an hour beyond the stipulated time with the colours.
+
+Their normal occupations to-day are chiefly those of butchers--all the
+shambles of Spain are in their hands--tinkers, horse-breakers, mule and
+donkey-dealers, and basket-makers. But, at a pinch, the gitano now
+condescends to engage on the lighter work of the land--hoeing, weeding,
+&c. Like the Jew, the gypsy has ever hitherto been conspicuous by his
+absence from every field of manual labour: both prefer the lighter
+barters of life; and that the gitano should now--even casually--take to
+such honest work, is perhaps a sign of the times.
+
+One great change has, however, been wrought by the century of equal
+laws--a change perhaps of vital import to the villain crew. The once
+sacred _errate_ is contaminated. Marriages between the two races--with
+or without the sanction of the church--are now frequent, though the
+Spaniard who contracts such ill-savoured union loses caste among his or
+her own people, and the children of these mixed marriages never lose the
+taint.
+
+[Illustration: Plate XXXIV.
+
+DANCERS AT GRANADA--THE BOLERO.
+
+Page 289.]
+
+By this means there has sprung into existence, during late years, an
+intermediate class, neither pure Gitano nor Spanish, which is daily
+increasing, and, being free from all the traditionary observances of the
+gypsy, mingles more and more with the national life, carrying with it
+much of the ready wit and piquancy of the latter.
+
+The result of this grafting of an element of gitanismo upon the original
+Castilian stock is the _Flamenco_ of to-day, and it is a curious satire
+on Spanish society that the style and attire, even the language, of this
+wanton half-caste breed have become a fashionable craze--have been by
+some paradoxical freak adopted by a section of even the higher
+Madrilenian circles who revel in copying the garb, the manners, and the
+jargon of the once loathed gypsy. Flamencos are found in every
+grade--well known among the gilded youth of Madrid or Seville--but the
+bull-ring appears to provide the most approved models for this school.
+Nor is the mania confined to the men: the bright gala-dress of the
+gitana has become fashionable among high-placed senoras who appear at
+dance or salon sporting the gaudy Manila shawl with its flowing fringe,
+short frock, and with hair coiffeured _a la Flamenca_. To prefer the
+raciest and most highly-flavoured Spanish dishes, to quaff freely the
+Manzanilla, to smoke cigarettes, to prefer olives to bonbons, to know
+the bull-fighters by their pet names, to be loud if not witty, smart in
+repartee and slang--this is to be _Flamenca_.
+
+Both sexes of the Flamencos proper retain the dress and manner of the
+original gypsy. The brazen beauty of the young Flamencas has the same
+seductive charms for the _Busne_; and it is from the half-caste that the
+dancing girls of the cities and light-fingered gentry of many
+accomplishments are mostly recruited.
+
+A considerable admixture of gypsy-blood is found among the lower strata
+of the bull-fighting profession, though its higher ranks are
+comparatively free from it. His intensely superstitious nature unfits
+the true-bred gypsy from real success in this or any pursuit where nerve
+and decision are required. The only gitano _espadas_ of note are
+Chicorro and El Gallo. The former has latterly lost nerve and prestige
+through a curious practical joke played upon his superstitious nature
+by a ventriloquial member of his _cuadrilla_. As he stood, sword and
+_muleta_ in hand, facing a black bull of the Duke of Veragua's breed in
+the Plaza of Madrid, suddenly the beast addressed him in low sepulchral
+tones, "_Te voy a coger!_"--I am going to catch you! Such was the effect
+on Chicorro's nerves that his life was only saved by his attendant
+_chulos_, who drew off the brute's attack, nor has Chicorro ever since
+dared to face a _black_ bull.
+
+[Illustration: GYPSY LAD.]
+
+The resident Spanish gypsies cluster together in some separate quarter
+of the town, or form an isolated mud-built _barrio_ outside its walls.
+Dwelling apart, and without the slightest bond of sympathy with their
+Castilian neighbours, their outward signs of joy or grief--both
+demonstrative--pass unheard and ignored. In their religion--adopted
+perforce of law, as before set forth, and which savours of idolatry
+simple, with a dash of superstition and fanaticism--in their curious
+marriage and funereal customs--both occasions of noisy orgy, the latter
+resembling an Irish "wake" with its alternations of wailing by the hour
+"to order," and feasting in turn--the gypsies are left severely alone.
+There is no sympathy with them. On the other hand, when civil or
+political disturbances prevail, and southern fervour is all ablaze, the
+gypsy _barrio_ remains spectacular and unmoved.
+
+No "patriotic" dreams or soaring ambitions disturb the gypsy's squalid
+life--what has he to gain? What can he ever hope to be, but the despised
+and rejected, under any form of government? No list of misguided
+peasantry, beguiled and betrayed by base agitator, ever registers his
+name: the midnight meetings of the "Black Hand" find no gitano present
+at their sworn and secret conclaves. The vagabond is too shrewd
+uselessly to embroil himself in abortive efforts to upset existing
+order: though there is little doubt what his action would be should the
+opportunity of pillage with impunity ever present itself.
+
+LOS BOHEMIOS.--There remain to be noticed the bands of nomad gypsies who
+flock to Spain during the winter months, but whose true home is said to
+be in Bohemia. These are not in touch with the native tribes, speaking
+but few words of Spanish or of its gypsy jargon. In summer they infest
+the roads and by-ways of Austria, travelling southwards, as winter
+advances, thus resembling in habit their British congeners. Their type
+of feature is of more Eastern caste, their faces almost black, with long
+tangled hair, in both sexes, hanging down to the shoulders. Their home
+is the wigwam or rickety waggon with its load of rags and babies, and
+its mixed team of mules, donkeys, and ponies. The lurcher-dog and the
+snare assist these Zingali to fill their _puchero_. They traverse the
+wilds of Spain in camps of thirty to fifty, squatting near village or
+outside city walls, ostensibly to occupy themselves with iron and copper
+tinkery, kettle-making, and the like. Some of the women of these
+Bohemians are striking enough in their gypsy-beauty; the same faces are
+seen in successive years, so their journeyings are to some extent
+methodical.
+
+One meets these nomad bands all over rural Spain, laboriously "trekking"
+axle-deep, across dusky-brown plain or lonely waste of brushwood and
+palmetto--picturesque objects--indeed the only element of life and
+colour amidst these desolate scenes.
+
+[Illustration: GYPSY DANCE.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+IN SEARCH OF THE LAMMERGEYER.
+
+A WINTER RIDE IN THE SIERRAS.
+
+
+To the Lammergeyer tradition has assigned some romantic attributes, and
+a character of wondrous dash and daring. This is the bird that is
+credited with feats of hurling hunters from perilous positions down crag
+or crevass, carrying off children to its eyrie, and kidnapping unguarded
+babes. Even Dr. Bree, in his "Birds of Europe," while doubting that it
+habitually assails grown-up people, gravely asserts that a pair of these
+birds will not hesitate to attack a man whom they have caught at a
+disadvantage; while one will venture, single-handed, an onslaught on two
+hunters who are asleep. Some naturalists now seem inclined to go to the
+other extreme, and to regard the Lammergeyer as merely a huge Neophron.
+
+No doubt the great size and weird, dragon-like appearance of the
+Gypaetus have tended to promote exaggeration, while its rarity and
+remote haunts have made it no easy subject to study, and few have formed
+its acquaintance in its own almost inaccessible domains. Our small
+experiences, narrated in the two following chapters, seem to show that
+the truth lies between the two extremes.
+
+Towards the end of January we set out for a fortnight's exploration of
+the mountains beyond Tempul and Algar, a forty-mile ride to the eastward
+of Jerez. Bitter was the cold as we rode off in the darkness at 5 A.M.,
+only two stars shining in the eastern firmament; truly the word
+_recreo_, as Blas explained to the sentry on duty at the old Moorish
+gateway, that we were only bound on _pleasure_, sounded almost
+satirical--as some one has said, life would be endurable but for its
+pleasures. By dawn we were crossing the hungry gravel-ridges beyond
+Cuartillos, and watched the sun rise from behind the stony pile of San
+Christobal, bathing the distant mountains, whither we were bound, in
+glorious golden glow.
+
+Crossing the Guadalete by the ford of Barca Florida, our route led
+through leagues of lovely park-like land--here straggling natural woods
+or ferny glades, anon opening out upon stretches of heath and palmetto.
+The track, where one existed, a typical Spanish by-way, shut in between
+vertical banks of slippery white marl, that barely left room for the
+laden mule; its narrow bed was a turgid mud-hole, honeycombed with the
+footprints of beasts that had gone before. Where the heath was more open
+we could take an independent course; but the scrub, as a rule, was
+impenetrable, and left no alternative but to go on plunging through the
+clinging mud. At noon we outspanned for _almuerzo_ beneath a cork-oak,
+the weather and the scene alike lovely beyond words. The evergreen woods
+swarmed with life; over the green expanse of palmetto hovered
+hen-harriers: a pair of kites swept over the wooded slopes of Berlanger,
+grey shrikes sat perched on dead boughs; chats, larks, buntings, and
+goldfinches swarmed, and all the usual Spanish birds, to wit, bustards
+great and small, cranes, storks, peewits, red-legs, kestrels, &c., were
+observed during the day's ride.
+
+Later in the afternoon we were fairly among the outspurs of the sierra,
+and overhead, on heavy wing, soared the vultures. What a curious
+commentary on the state of a country are such hordes of huge
+carrion-feeders, and how eloquently does their presence attest a
+backward and listless condition in the lands they inhabit! In Spain, it
+is true, vultures serve a useful office as scavengers; yet in modern
+Europe they surely seem an anachronism. No doubt it is due as much to
+the physical conditions, to the desert character and semi-tropical
+climate of this wild land, as to the apathy of the Spanish people, that
+they exist in such numbers. Among nations more keenly imbued with
+commercial instincts, the flock-master takes care that his stock shall
+support themselves in order to support him. The daily, hourly losses
+which are implied in the supplementary support of hordes of huge
+flesh-eating birds, each as heavy as a Spanish sheep and voracious as a
+hyena, would simply put him out of the market, and eventually land him
+in bankruptcy. But Spain cares nothing for modern ideas, and disdains to
+put herself about in the universal race for wealth. There is dignity in
+her attitude, but there is at least a suspicion of lassitude. Where
+Nature is prodigal, man becomes proportionately apathetic. Here her
+gifts more than suffice for simple tastes and day-to-day requirements,
+and the rural Andaluz seeks no more.
+
+[Illustration: LAMMERGEYER--A FIRST IMPRESSION.]
+
+In agriculture, stock-raising, and other pastoral pursuits, the
+rudiments of modern system--drainage, irrigation, and the like--are
+ignored. In the burning heats of summer, when every green thing is
+scorched to death, the cattle die by hundreds from thirst and want of
+pasturage; in winter, when plains are flooded, and valleys
+water-logged, the death-rate from cold, want, and disease is hardly less
+heavy than that of summer. Small wonder the great bare-necked scavengers
+of Nature increase and flourish.
+
+Passing beneath the twin crags of Las Dos Hermanas, we struck the course
+of the Majaceite, whose rushing stream, embowered amidst magnificent
+oleanders, looked more _like trout_ than anything we had then seen in
+these sierras. Among the mountain streams above Alcala de los Gazules
+and in the Sierra de la Jarda we have observed its darting form, and
+further south some large trout have more recently been captured.
+
+It was necessary to ford the Majaceite, which, in its swollen state and
+opaque current, was one of those things that bring one's heart into
+one's mouth; the bottom, however, proved sound: we plunged through all
+right, and after some stiffish mountain-riding reached the _pueblocito_
+of Algar just as the setting sun was bathing the wild serrania in
+softest purples and gold.
+
+The posada was a typical Spanish village inn. Our horses we had
+ourselves to see quartered in the stable, which occupied one side of the
+courtyard, while our dinner was being made ready in a small whitewashed
+room adjoining. The sleeping-quarters above consisted of a single small
+attic, absolutely devoid of furniture or of contents beyond a pile of
+sacks containing corn, or "paja" (chaff), in one corner, and our own
+belongings, including saddles, mule-pack, &c., &c., which lay littered
+all over the floor. Three trestle-beds ("catres") were produced, and in
+deference to the idiosyncrasies of the _extranjero_, a tiny wash-basin
+was placed on the window-sill--not that there was any _window_, beyond a
+folding wooden shutter. Dinner consisted of an _olla_, in which small
+morsels of pork could be hunted up amidst the recesses of a steaming
+mass of _garbanzos_ (chick-pea), by no means bad, though we were too
+hungry to be fastidious.
+
+[Illustration: DANCE AND GUITAR.]
+
+A small crowd of idlers, as usual, hung about the open courtyard of the
+posada, watching for "any new thing," and speculating on our objects in
+coming. I overheard the word _mineral_, and remembering that I had been
+amusing myself in sifting some of the sands of the Majaceite, thought it
+best to dispel any false impressions by inviting the bystanders to share
+a _boracha_ of the rough wine of local growth, and the usual cigarette.
+It is always best to have some definite object, so I told my guests that
+I had come to the sierra to shoot the _quebranta-huesos_, literally,
+"bone-smasher." They stared and mumbled over the name; had never heard
+of such a thing; the first man one meets probably never has; but there
+was in the village a goatherd, _muy inteligente en pajaros_, "who knew
+all about birds." I sent for this worthy, Francisco Garcia de Conde by
+name, a light-built, wiry mountaineer. Francisco's ornithological repute
+was easily acquired, for among the blind a one-eyed man is king; but he
+certainly did know the Lammergeyer, and his description of its habits
+and appearance passed the evening away pleasantly enough. The
+_quebranta-huesos_ he described as a fierce and solitary bird--never
+seen more than two together, and discriminated it from the vultures as
+being _muy danino_--very destructive to goats, kids, and other
+hill-stock, which it seizes and kills on the spot, or hurls over the
+ledge of some precipice. He well described their habit of engaging in
+aerial combat--"siempre se ponen peleando en el ayre"--and their loud
+wild "pwing! pwing!" resounding through the mountain solitudes. Of their
+actual nesting-places, however (which I was most anxious to discover),
+he knew nothing, beyond positively stating (and in this he was
+corroborated by other hill-men) that they bred exclusively in the
+loftier sierras beyond Ronda. We had ourselves spent some time
+traversing those very sierras without seeing anything of this bird; but
+should add, were not at that time specially in search of it. Their
+eyries, Francisco asserted, were only to be found in the region of
+"living rocks" (_piedras vivas_), which form the loftiest peaks. In
+this, however, as will appear in the next chapter, our friend Francisco
+was mistaken.
+
+Our conversation was listened to--I don't imagine enjoyed--by a pair of
+lovers, who, with a rather pretty girl, the daughter of the house,
+presumably in the capacity of duena, occupied the other side of the
+table. The _enamorados_ scarcely ever spoke; he sat looking mutely into
+her face, only muttering a whisper at long intervals. She was absolutely
+silent, and looked stolid and stupid too.
+
+Leaving Algar, we crossed the bleak plateaux to the eastward, brown,
+stony, and sterile; thence descending to a forest region, where the
+track followed the course of a clear mountain stream, embedded among
+oleander, laurestinus, and myrtle, their foliage forming an evergreen
+tunnel, along which we rode in grateful shade. For some distance our
+route and the burn ran parallel, their courses sometimes coincident;
+then we diverged to the left, ascending the slope of a _garganta_,
+amidst noble oaks, chestnuts, and ilex, all, save the oaks, in full
+leaf, and from the gnarled trunks hung hare's-foot ferns and masses of
+ivy and parasitic plants in green festoons. Of bird-life, but little
+beyond a few common small birds was observable, and on a sunny slope we
+came suddenly on a big grey mongoose, which, however, got to ground
+before the gun could be unslung.
+
+The first range explored was the series of crags terminating the Sierra
+de las Cabras; but it proved blank as regarded our chief object. The
+summit is a long, narrow, knife-edged ridge, along which vertical strata
+of limestone, bleached white as marble, protrude abruptly as the walls
+of a ruined city. Amidst these ruinous streets were a few Black Chats,
+and on a shoulder of the hill a solitary Blue Rock-Thrush; a small eagle
+was sweeping over the slopes, but not a sign of the Lammergeyer could we
+see. The day was bright and clear, and the view extensive and wild. On
+the north the granite mass of San Christobal, now lightly flecked with
+snow, limited our horizon; but in other directions rose an infinity of
+grey, stony sierras, range beyond range, some sharp, jagged, and cruelly
+bare of vegetation. To the south we could discern the silvery sheen of
+the Lagunas de Janda, with glimpses of the Straits of Gibraltar, and the
+misty outline of African highlands beyond.
+
+We had a long, hard day ere we reached the cortijo of a hospitable
+hill-farmer among the cork-woods of the valley beyond. Here we sought a
+night's lodging, and the kindly mountaineer, "Francisco de Naranjo, su
+servidor de usted," as with a low bow and typical Andalucian courtesy he
+introduced himself, at once made us feel that the Spanish welcome--"aqui
+tiene usted su casa"--was, in his case, no empty form of words. We
+dined together, Francisco and I, on garbanzos, thrushes, a chicken, and
+black puddings! These last, and the consciousness that a newly-killed
+pig, whose life-blood no doubt had furnished the delicacy, hung from the
+rafters immediately behind my head, amidst store of algarrobas,
+capsicums, and heads of golden maize, were the only drawbacks to my
+comfort. We discussed agricultural and political subjects, and agreed in
+sharing conservative views, though, in Spain, I fancy I might turn
+rather more of a reformer; but this I did not hint at. Francisco
+observed that should Lord Salisbury's then existing Government in
+England fall, it would be a _mal rato_ (a bad time) for property-owners
+everywhere! My host told me that he set his watch by the sun, and in
+answer to a question when the sun would rise to-morrow, promptly
+replied, "At 7.19."[58]
+
+After dinner we adjourned to the large outer room, where among the
+miscellaneous crew gathered round the blazing logs were a wild-honey
+hunter, and a birdcatcher who was plying his vocation in the adjacent
+woods. I was surprised to find among his captures a number of redwings;
+of a couple of dozen thrushes which I bought for my own and men's
+eating, no less than eight were redwings, and on subsequent days he
+caught many more. This man, though he knew that the song-thrushes were
+migratory in Spain, saying they were _pajaros de entrada_, which left
+when the swallows appeared, did not see any difference between them and
+the redwings. He had also caught a Great Spotted Woodpecker, and while I
+was examining it, one of the half-wild cats of the farm, cautiously
+stalking beneath my chair, seized the prey and made off into outer
+darkness.
+
+It was a typical Andalucian scene around the hearth, the group of
+bronzed leather-clad mountaineers, some already "gone to roost"
+(audibly) on the low mud settee round the outer wall, while others
+rolled the everlasting "papelito," and one, as usual, "touched" the
+guitar. My host had a narrow "catre" set up for me in his own room, and
+next morning, after an early cup of the delicious thick Spanish
+chocolate and the sweet biscuits for which the neighbouring village of
+Alcala bears a local repute, we started on foot to ascend the range
+behind the house while yet the hills were wrapped in mist-wreaths.
+
+The ascent at first lay through hanging forests, broken here and there
+by grey crags, the home of the chough and the eagle-owl. Here a cushat
+occasionally dashed away, or a jay awoke the echoes at safe distance.
+Above the trees the climb became harder and the ground of the roughest,
+stony acclivities choked with brushwood. Beyond these came the region of
+rock, vast monoliths and rock walls beside which a man felt a very mite
+in the scale of creation.
+
+On the conical rock-pile, the Picacho del Aljibe, which towers over the
+surrounding sierras not unlike a gigantic Arthur's Seat over the
+Salisbury Crags, we had enjoyed in a former year a sight of the
+Gypaetus; but now it proved blank, nor could our guides, nor a goatherd
+we met on the mountain, give us any information beyond the customary
+"hay muchos en Estremadura." Whatever one may seek, it would appear,
+abounds in Estremadura! The Spanish peasant, whether from an
+over-anxious desire to assist, or from a fear of appearing ignorant, is
+apt to err on the side of imagination or exaggeration. Information
+received from them needs careful sifting, or disappointment may ensue.
+Thus, while on a fishing expedition in the north of Spain, I was
+sounding my companion, a Gallegan peasant, as to the bears, deer, and
+other game of the surrounding sierras. At first his answers seemed
+straight and fair, but a bear story or two took me aback, and presently
+he insisted that the _red_ deer in those hills _never cast their horns_,
+which grew to a fabulous size. Before abandoning the discussion I said
+casually--with a view to "fix" him--"_Y leones?_" "Lions! No, senor,
+here there are none; but further over yonder (this with a wave of his
+hand to the westward) there are many." The expression, _mas alla hay
+muchos_, and the gesture that accompanied it, conveyed the impression
+that only a few leagues across the mountains, there were swarms of
+lions: but on being questioned more precisely as to the locality, he
+replied--"In the United States!" Possibly in that lad's mind, the
+_Estados Unidos_ commenced somewhere just beyond the limit of his
+view--at any rate, further zoological discussion was suspended.
+
+Many of the crags were tenanted by vultures, but these we expressly
+avoided, and directed the search to spots where these birds were not.
+For some days we sought in vain: at last we espied an eyrie which
+appeared to give promise of success. This was a wide crevice in the face
+of a precipice, which from the copious whitewash below, was evidently
+occupied. Some broken crags on the left seemed to afford a chance of
+climbing within shot of the eyrie; and having reached the spot, Blas
+fired a shot below, when there followed a scrambling noise within the
+cave, and out swept--not the coveted Gypaetus, but a huge bare-necked
+griffon. I appeased my disappointment with both barrels, and the B.B.
+taking effect on the head, the vulture collapsed and fell
+down--down--with a mighty thud to the slopes below.
+
+We could find nothing but vultures here: every crag was possessed by
+them, and we examined several of their abodes. They were already
+beginning to build: the remnants of last year's structures being now
+(January 22nd) supplemented by fresh live branches of oak and olive, and
+big claws-full of grass torn up by the roots.
+
+'Twere a long tale to tell of fruitless efforts: we never so much as saw
+our coveted prize hereabouts, and at length we left the kindly farmer's
+house. The pretty Anita who had waited on us, and who, though she never
+sat down in her master's presence, joined freely in the conversation,
+had, we observed, donned quite an extra stratum of _poudre d'amour_, or
+some such compound, upon her fair brown cheeks to bid _adios_ to the mad
+Ingles; but neither she nor hearty Francisco would hear of accepting any
+return for all the trouble of our visit. We had an idea, in the former
+case, that coquetry might have had something to do with Anita's
+refusal, but time forbade the solution of the question.
+
+[Illustration: GRIFFON VULTURE. (A sketch in the Sierra.)]
+
+Further explorations had no better result: in the forests of the Sierra
+de la Jarda were a good many roe and some pig, but we did not care to
+risk the uncertainty of a _batida_ all alone. Partridge are very scarce
+on all these hills, and no wonder, since every farmer keeps his pair of
+call-birds (_reclamos_). We had gently hinted to Francisco the unwisdom
+of shooting partridges to decoys in spring; but he insisted it did no
+harm, since _he only shot the cocks_! A pair or two of partridges at
+long intervals were all we saw (two or three brace a day was the utmost
+we could bag as a rule), and these, with a few hares and a chance
+rabbit, are all the small game of the sierra. In the marshy valleys were
+flights of peewits (January), and the woods swarmed with thrushes,
+blackbirds, chaffinches, green and brown linnets, robins, a few
+redwings, and other common species. A striking bird among the dense
+scrub on the hillsides was the little Dartford warbler, a creature of
+such intensely tame and skulking habits, that it was impossible to get a
+shot beyond a few yards--which involved annihilation of so tiny an atom.
+
+After another week's exploration, sleeping at the _chozas_ of goatherds,
+or in bat-haunted caves, and enduring much discomfort, we decided to
+give it up.[59] On the homeward journey we gave a day to the exploration
+of the Boca de la Foz, where on a former occasion we had had a shot at a
+Lammergeyer--a grey-brown immature bird; but here again we met with
+nothing but the ubiquitous vultures, and in the afternoon we had paid
+off our guides and were starting on the homeward ride, when Benitez
+pointed out a _pajaraco_ in the distance. At first the bird appeared an
+ordinary griffon, some of which were close by; but as it came overhead,
+there was no mistaking the outlines of the Lammergeyer. Slowly the
+magnificent bird wheeled and sailed overhead, and our eyes feasted on
+the object we would have given two little fingers to possess. For some
+minutes he treated us to a fine view at moderately short distance. The
+general contour and flight was far more vulturine and less falcon-like
+than we had expected. The wings seemed fully as heavy, broad, and square
+at the points as those of a griffon, but there was rather more curve at
+the elbow. A lightish spot near the tips of the quills, the rich tawny
+breast and white head, keenly turning from side to side, were very
+conspicuous from below; but the distinguishing characteristic of the
+bird is its tail. This is very long, and continues broadening out for
+half its length, thence narrowing down acutely to the sharp wedge-shaped
+tip.
+
+Presently the bird appeared to enter some great crags--already hidden
+from view by an intervening bluff--and the hopes of a shot revived.
+Benitez was protesting against the idea of spending another night here,
+with no food for man or beast, when the Lammergeyer solved the question
+by re-appearing, and after a few fine aerial evolutions, winged his way
+direct towards the distant sierras beyond Grazalema.
+
+That night we reached the little _venta_ of the Parada del Valle: the
+landlord could hardly get over the curiosity of our wishing to wash
+before dinner, and for some minutes revolved like a swivel-mitrailleuse,
+expectorating all over the floor while pondering this thing in his mind.
+"Ahora?" at last he inquired. "Si! ahora mismo!" we replied, when he
+went and brought a thing that looked like a tin plate, containing about
+a breakfast-cupful of water.
+
+El Valle is a straggling little village situate in the mouth of one of
+the defiles leading into the mountains, and consists of a few low
+cottages and a single country-house--a rare thing in Spain--embowered
+amidst orange and olive-groves. The orange harvest was in full swing,
+and the villagers one and all busy gathering the golden fruit into
+heaps, and packing it upon mules for market; some also in the long
+wooden cases one sees about Covent Garden. The only sign-board in the
+little one-sided street displayed the words "Dentista y Sangrador"--the
+Spaniards, by the way, are strong believers in bleeding: it seems the
+one known remedy, efficacious for all the ills of the flesh, as the
+writer once learned by experience, when having had a slight sunstroke,
+he awoke to find a rural medico in the act of applying the lancet to his
+arm.
+
+Before dawn we started for Jerez, and in a detached crag of the sierra
+we obtained a fine adult male golden eagle which had breakfasted early
+on a rabbit. Like most Spanish examples, this eagle was much splashed
+with white below, especially on the thighs. Shortly after, on a bare
+stretch of maize stubble, we rode fairly into a pack of little bustard,
+and though the gun was in the slings a quick shot secured three--one to
+the first barrel, and a brace, winged, to the second. A long skein of
+cranes came gaggling over as we breakfasted on the banks of Guadalete,
+and, passing the Agredera, by evening the long ride was over, and we
+were once more amidst the grateful comforts of Jerez de la Frontera.
+Only for a brief period, however, did these delay us, for on the
+following evening we set out on a night expedition to the marisma.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+THE HOME OF THE LAMMERGEYER.
+
+
+Since the time of those earlier efforts to scrape an acquaintance with
+the Lammergeyer (some of which form the subject of the last chapter), we
+have at length enjoyed opportunities of observing this grand bird in its
+true home, and here add a short summary of these later experiences.
+
+Broadly speaking, this bird may be said to exist in all the higher
+mountain regions of Spain; but, as a rule, in small and decreasing
+numbers. In the north, there are eyries in Guipuzcoa and Navarre, one or
+two within sight of the French frontier; others in the Cordilleras of
+Leon and the Asturias--the magnificent gorge known as the Desfiladero de
+la Deva, being an immemorial haunt. We have observed them in the great
+central sierras of Castile, and they are known (but probably do not
+breed) in the Guadarrama range, within sight of Madrid. Nowhere common,
+there are yet more sporadic pairs to be seen sweeping low on the steep
+brown mountain-sides of certain Andalucian and Estremenian sierras than
+anywhere else in Spain. Here, however, as elsewhere, their numbers are
+being yearly reduced by the deadly poison laid by hill-farmers for
+wolves, and, in some cases, expressly for the Lammergeyer itself; for,
+rightly or wrongly, the great bird bears an ill-repute, and being,
+moreover, during the breeding-season, of confiding disposition--more so
+than eagle or vulture--is easily killed at the nest.
+
+The Gypaetus, like the noble eagles, is essentially a solitary bird,
+each pair (they remain paired for life) requiring a mountain region
+exclusively their own, and shunning the near propinquity of vultures and
+other large raptores. It is no doubt this trait of its character that
+explains its comparative absence from our "home" mountains round Ronda,
+and the failure of our search for it in that district; for the
+ramification of mountain-ranges which occupies that southernmost apex of
+Europe swarms with vultures, which crowd every crag and precipice in
+numbers quite unknown elsewhere. Such conditions are distasteful to the
+solitude-loving Lammergeyer.
+
+Yet, while shunned as near neighbours, it appears certain that the
+vultures perform services of value to their nobler congener. Their
+office consists in stripping the skeleton of flesh, and leaving prepared
+for the "quebranta-huesos" (bone-smasher) his much preferred
+_bonne-bouche_ of marrow-bones. Thus, while the respective haunts of the
+two species remain distinct, their hunting-areas must coincide.
+
+The Lammergeyer disdains carrion; is never seen at those seething
+vulture-banquets which form so characteristic a spectacle in rural
+Spain; but he loves the _bones_, and his habit of carrying huge tibia
+and femora into the upper air, thence dropping them upon rocks, has been
+known since the days of AEschylus. Hence the fouler feeders are useful to
+him; he requires their assistance, but demands that they keep a
+respectful distance. His attitude towards the vultures may be compared
+with that of certain high-souled anthropoids of human affinity, who
+utilize their humbler neighbours and cut them dead next day!
+
+Thus it happens that while in a range of sierra inhabited by Griffons,
+the Lammergeyer will not be found, yet a pair of the latter usually have
+their eyrie at no great distance from the vulture-colony.[60]
+
+During our ibex-shooting campaigns among the Mediterranean sierras, we
+frequently fell in with this species.
+
+[Illustration: Plate XXXV.
+
+LAMMERGEYER. A sketch from life in the Sierra Bermeja.
+
+Page 308.]
+
+It was almost the first bird seen in the Sierra Bermeja, where a superb
+adult passed slowly along our line, carrying what appeared to be a live
+snake in his claws, some four feet of writhing reptile dangling beneath.
+The Lammergeyer, by the way, like the eagle, carries everything in its
+claws, not in the beak. We were rather surprised at seeing this bird
+here, the local hunters having specially assured us that only "aguilas
+reales" bred in that sierra. This name, however, proved to be that
+_here_ applied to the Lammergeyer; its proper recipient, the Golden
+Eagle (a pair of which were nesting in a crag not far off) being known
+as "aguila negra."
+
+Vultures, it may be mentioned, were chiefly remarkable by their absence
+in these mountains--one only saw a solitary Griffon at long intervals,
+and in that barren rocky-mountain region (afterwards mentioned), in
+which we found the Lammergeyer most numerous, vultures were seldom seen.
+Yet _Buiteras_, "Griffonries," so to speak, existed at certain
+intervals, say, six or eight leagues apart, throughout the whole of
+those sierras.
+
+This pair of Lammergeyers, which we enjoyed watching during some days,
+soon disclosed to us both the position of their present abode and also
+that of a former year, entering the latter crag almost as often as the
+then tenanted nursery.
+
+Perched, as we were, a thousand feet above, it was a glorious
+ornithological spectacle to watch these grand birds sailing to and fro
+unsuspicious and unconscious of our presence, their lavender backs and
+outstretched pinions gleaming like silver in the sunshine. Slowly they
+would glide down the gorge till lost to sight around an angle; returning
+half an hour later, and passing beneath our post, would circle for a
+minute or two round the rock-stack. Not a motion of those rigid pinions
+till close to the mouth of the eyrie, then the great wings closed, and
+the bird disappeared within its cave.
+
+Both eyries were situate in similar positions--in abrupt stacks of rock
+which protruded from the rugged mountain slope, but _both_ quite _low_
+down, almost at the bottom of the 3,000-foot gorge across which the two
+nests faced each other. The Lammergeyer, we have now ascertained, does
+_not_ breed, as we had expected, in those more stupendous precipices
+beloved of _Aquila bonelli_, and whose height dwarfs even an eagle to
+the similitude of the homely kestrel; but rather, either in rock-stacks
+such as those (often not 100 feet high) which flank the lower
+_gargantas_, or corries of the sierra, or in those generally loftier
+crags which often belt the base of each individual mountain.
+
+The actual site of the nest is a small cave--rather than a crevice--and
+a huge mass of material, the accumulation of years, usually covers the
+whole floor. In one case, not less than a cart-load of sticks, branches,
+and twigs of cistus and heath had been collected, covering a circular
+space some six feet in diameter by two in depth. The present nest was
+hardly so large, and was completed with dead vine-branches, the prunings
+of the previous autumn;--and contained, besides an old _alparagata_, or
+hempen sandal, several cows' hoofs, and the dried leg and foot of a
+wild-goat. There was, however, no carrion about, nor any very offensive
+smell, such as would have characterized the home of a vulture.
+
+To an outsider, the feat of scaling even a 100-foot crag, when fairly
+sheer, seems no easy undertaking; but our two mountain-bred lads made
+light work of it, one escalading the Lammergeyer's fortress from below,
+the other from above (which proved the easier way), and actually meeting
+in the eyrie. Some goatherds, hearing of our wish to secure a
+"quebranta-huesos," had removed the single young bird an hour or two
+previously. This grotesque and most uncouth fledgeling was then (at end
+of March) about the size of a turkey, covered with grey-white down, and
+with beak and crop so disproportionately heavy that a recumbent position
+appeared almost a necessity. The youngster kept up a constant querulous
+whistle when visited, and consumed, we were told, four pounds of meat
+daily. A month later the feathers were beginning to show through the
+down, and the daily consumption of meat had doubled.
+
+In a remote region of the Sierra Nevada, during the spring of 1891, the
+writer visited several eyries of the Lammergeyer--each nest, in
+construction and situation, resembling those already described, but the
+season (April) was too late to secure eggs, this species breeding very
+early--in January. The young--usually only one, though two eggs are
+often laid--at this season were about one-third feathered. These nests
+were in the midst of a peculiarly barren and rocky district of the great
+Eastern Sierras, the precise locality of which it may be as well to
+leave unwritten. Two of the eyries were in low belts of protruding rock
+which broke the steep slope of the sierra, a third in a detached crag
+about 150 feet in height. The latter, however, was easily accessible (by
+rope) from above. The Lammergeyer, when breeding, is less cautious than
+eagle or vulture, sitting close, even while preparations for an assault
+on its stronghold are being made close at hand.
+
+The adults measure from 8 feet 6 inches to 9 feet in expanse of wing,
+and the wedge-shaped white head with its bristly beard and scarlet
+eyelids, its cat-like irides, and the black bands that pass through the
+eye, give the bird a peculiarly ferocious aspect. When on the wing, as
+Prince Rudolph remarks, these features, together with the long rigid
+wings, cuneate tail, and the mixture of hoary grey, black, and bright
+yellow in its plumage, distinguish the Gypaetus at a glance from any
+other living creature, and lend it a strange, almost a dragon-like
+appearance.
+
+Its claws, though less acutely hooked than those of the eagle, are sharp
+and powerful weapons--quite different to the worn and blunted claws of
+vultures, though the central toe in _both_ is much longer than the two
+outside ones.
+
+The industry of the peasantry of these wild regions of Nevada deserves a
+passing remark. As high as rye or other crops will grow, almost every
+foot of available ground is brought under cultivation. Precipitous,
+stony slopes are terraced with a perseverance that rivals, though on a
+smaller scale, the vineyards of Alto Douro, elsewhere described.
+Scanning the heights with a field-glass, one descries a man working on
+some jutting point or tiny patch of tillage so steep that a stone would
+hardly lie. All these folk, towards nightfall, betake themselves to the
+quaint but unsavoury hamlets that hang on some ridge of the sierra--and
+not the human folk only, but the pigs, the goats, and the donkeys
+forbye--each beast making straight for its own abode. Along each
+rock-paved street at dusk they come at a run, looking neither to right
+nor left till each beast bolts, without ceremony, into its own abode.
+Some five-and-twenty of the larger "domestic" animals (I take no count
+of dogs, hens, or the like) shared with me and sundry natives our scanty
+lodgment, whence at earliest dawn the braying of asses, cock-crowing,
+and porcine squalls, drove us betimes of a morning.
+
+[Illustration: OUR QUARTERS AT QUENTAR DEL RIO.]
+
+In one hill-village, there being no _posada_, we put up in the outhouse
+of a mill: but, amidst sacks of grain and malodorous mules, we passed a
+lively evening, for one by one the serranos dropped in to chat with the
+"Ingleses"; the wine-skin was replenished, and Manuel struck up some
+snatches of "Don Rodrigo de Bivar" and songs of the ancient chivalry.
+Maiden figures soon flitted in the darkness outside, and coyly accepting
+an invitation to enter, our barn resounded with the music of castanet
+and guitar, while lissom forms and light fandango graced its erewhiles
+unlovely floor.
+
+Next morning our guide, Manolo Osorio Garcia, was drunk--a most unusual
+thing in Spain! We left him to sleep off his _borachera_, and were glad
+to get rid of him, for--again, most unusual--he was constantly pestering
+not only for wine, but for boots, gunpowder, and other things--requests
+that, when luggage is reduced to a minimum, cannot be conveniently
+complied with.
+
+Despite their industry there is, nevertheless, woful poverty amid the
+peasants of Nevada. Whole tribes live in caves and excavations in the
+mountain-sides--filthy holes, shared, of course, by the beasts, and
+devoid of the remotest approach to comfort or decency. Even in the
+larger villages the ordinary sanitary precautions are utterly neglected,
+disease is frequent, and death sweeps in broad swathes. Early one
+morning Manuel came in to tell us that in the hamlet, at which we had
+arrived the previous night, "the people were dying by dozens each day of
+small-pox, that ten children had already succumbed that morning, and
+that he was very ill himself." We accordingly left at once, meeting in
+the pass above the village a drove of several hundred black pigs. Our
+horses planted their feet firmly on the rocks, and for some minutes we
+stood encompassed in a torrent of swine, which raced and jostled beneath
+us.
+
+In Spain the Gypaetus is yearly decreasing in numbers. A decade ago they
+were fairly numerous in the vast area of rock mountains which stretches
+between Granada and Jaen. To-day a week may be spent in that district
+without so much as even a distant view of this grand bird. The reason is
+unquestionably the use of poison (_veneno_), which is laid out broadcast
+by the goatherds for the special benefit of wolves, but which is equally
+fatal to the Lammergeyer.
+
+Wolves, by the way, during the severe winter of 1890-1, were
+particularly numerous and destructive in the Sierra Nevada, descending
+to lower levels than usual, demolishing whole flocks, and even attacking
+human beings when found alone. In one instance all that could be found
+of a poor goatherd, who had been missing for some weeks, was his boots!
+
+This brings us again to the question of the habits of the Gypaetus, and
+especially of its food. Some naturalists seem inclined to hold that the
+bird is only a _vulture_, subsisting on carrion, and fearing to attack
+any living prey. The goatherds of Nevada, however (rightly or wrongly),
+do not share this view. One kindly old hill-farmer, at whose lonely
+cottage we spent a couple of nights, assured us that the "quebrantones,"
+as he called them, were as destructive to his new-born kids in
+spring-time as the wolves themselves, and added that he laid out the
+_veneno_ in special spots for each of his enemies. Only three days
+before, he asserted with vehement emphasis, he had witnessed a
+Lammergeyer strike down a week-old kid, its mate meanwhile driving off
+the dam. So intent was the bird on demolishing its victim that the
+farmer approached within a few yards and threw his stick at it as it
+rose. The kid, however, was dead. He insisted that the robber was no
+Golden Eagle (which he knew well), but "_de los Barbudos
+malditos!_"--one of those accursed bearded fellows!
+
+Again, on a single _majada_, or goat-breeding establishment, in
+Estremadura, we were told that forty odd kids had been killed that
+spring by one pair of Lammergeyers before the enraged tenant was able to
+shoot them. We saw one of the birds--a superb adult Gypaetus.
+
+Here also is the evidence of the veteran _cazador_, Manuel de la Torre,
+a man of keen observation and intelligence, and the best
+field-naturalist we have met in Spain: "The Lammergeyer seeks far and
+wide for prey, preferring bones to anything else, but also eating
+carrion on necessity; and in spring, when it has young, kills many young
+sheep and goats, both wild and tame. I have seen it take snakes and
+other reptiles, and the largest and finest I ever shot (now in Madrid
+Museum) was in the act of eating a rabbit I had just seen it kill. This
+was in the Pardo. A dead hare or rabbit is the best bait to attract the
+Gypaetus to the gun; it regularly hunts both. The Neophron I have never
+seen take any living thing; it only eats carrion, garbage, and offal,
+but I have found dead snakes in its nests. The Gypaetus, like the
+vultures and some eagles, feed their young for some months on
+half-digested food, disgorged from their own crops." This is the
+evidence of one who has seen more of the Lammergeyer than any other
+living naturalist, and it is for this reason that, contrary to our
+practice, we have accepted what may be called hearsay evidence.
+
+It is for these reasons that we have retained the distinctive title of
+Lammergeyer, now generally discarded in favour--on mistaken grounds, we
+think--of the name of "Bearded Vulture." Independently of the fact that
+our subject is no more a vulture than it is an eagle, surely a
+distinctive name is preferable to further iteration of the wearisome
+monotony--ay, poverty--of ornithological nomenclature. Have we not run
+to death those compound epithets, "long-legged," "black-tailed,"
+"white-shouldered," and the like? Even on the assumption--not proven in
+this case--that the word conveys an inference not strictly accurate,
+there are precedents for its retention, _e.g._, Caprimulgus, Goatsucker,
+Nycticorax, Bernicla, the Bernacle Goose, Oyster-catcher, and many more.
+We hesitate to accept such substitutes as Tures and Bearded Vulture for
+the time-honoured designations of Ibex and Lammergeyer.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+RAMON AND THE TWO BIG RAMS.
+
+AN INCIDENT OF IBEX-STALKING.
+
+
+For more than an hour we had been lying expectant, Ramon and I. Our
+position was in a tumble of rocks, which commanded the approach to a
+pass--a little _portillo_, the only one by which the beetling crags
+above were surmountable, even to an ibex. The pass was a narrow cleft or
+fissure, traversing transversely the whole height of the crags, whose
+sheer dolomite precipices otherwise presented an utterly unscaleable
+face. Our post was a favourable one, hence it was with a tinge of
+disappointment that we observed the appearance of one of our drivers on
+the heights of the opposite sky-line.
+
+Ramon lay just in front of me on the narrow shelving ledge, his head
+considerably lower than his feet, his lithe body entwined around a
+projecting rock-buttress, while his keen eye surveyed everything that
+moved in the panorama of wild rock-chaos beneath. During these hours of
+meditation I began more clearly to understand one, at least, of the
+_raisons d'etre_ for that remarkable acuteness of smell which is
+attributed to the ibex. The ibex-hunters invariably assured us that the
+goats relied more on their sense of smell than on that of sight--"they
+have more nose than eyes--_mas nariz que ojos_," in Spanish phrase.
+This, I now realized, was not, after all, so inexplicable, for the
+skin-clad hunter before me was decidedly aromatic. It became easy of
+comprehension that his presence might be more readily perceptible to the
+nose than to the eyes; for, while Ramon's serpentine form, curving round
+a rock-angle, and appearing to fit into its sinuosities, was all but
+invisible, his whereabouts, even to human olfactory organs, might
+probably be detected at a considerable distance. No wonder the native
+hunter is careful to keep always under the lee of the breeze.
+
+"Do you see where Guarro is now?" presently remarked Ramon, "crossing
+the ridge below the glacier-foot." After scanning for some minutes every
+inch of the spot indicated with a strong field-glass, I made out at
+length a minute moving dot that might be our friend Guarro y Guarro, the
+ruddy-faced goatherd, who was in charge of the _batida_.[61] "Well, that
+is where I shot the first of the two big _machos_ on Thursday--the other
+on these broken pinnacles lower down on the right." To kill two
+first-rate males, single-handed, in a day was no small feat, and Ramon's
+tale of the achievement was an interesting sporting episode.
+
+"I was attending my goats," he said, "in the Arroyo del Cerradillo, the
+ravine above where we shot the small _macho_ yesterday; and as I came
+within sight of the high crags at its summit, I crept carefully forward,
+'speering' round the rocks to see if any ibex chanced to be in them.
+They are a favourite haunt of the goats during the day, and as there are
+some large males on that side, it is always worth while to be prepared
+and cautious. That morning there were two--both large ibex, with very
+long horns, as long as a man's arms. They were at first walking away,
+but soon lay down on a ledge where it was possible to crawl to within
+fifty or sixty yards of them. Unfortunately, part of the stalk was
+through soft snow, and, in consequence, the gun missed fire."
+
+Ramon's gun, by the way, was an exceptionally rickety old weapon, with
+many signs of rude repairs, and bore on its single barrel, counter-sunk
+in golden letters, the inscription "Plasencia, 1841." No doubt it owed
+the Imperial exchequer of Spain something like fifty pounds sterling in
+respect of license duty during half a century, not one centime of which
+is ever likely to find its way into the Spanish Treasury.
+
+Poor Ramon, though well provided with powder and ball, had but two caps;
+hence it was necessary, after the misfire, to draw the faithless charge
+in order to save intact the two precious _mitos_. "Meanwhile," continued
+Ramon, "the two ibex had moved up the rocks, and soon crossed the
+sky-line just above those snow-gullies. They did not appear much
+alarmed, never having seen me; so I followed round the shoulder of the
+main spur, as the goats had gone downwind. In the afternoon I came up
+with them, just where I showed you. There were now four of them--all big
+males, and as the two nearer were lying down in a favourable position, I
+got a good shot, killing the largest quite dead, with a bullet through
+chest and heart.
+
+"The other three, still uncertain whence the shot had come, owing to the
+echo reverberating among the hills, hesitated a few moments, and then
+sprang downwards, one passing so near that, had I had another gun, I
+might perhaps have killed him. My dog, which had followed me, and which
+was well accustomed to herding my own goats, now gave chase. I knew the
+ibex could not pass the ice-slope of Cerradillo [two miles away], and in
+the hope that I might cut off their retreat by the Garganta del Canchon,
+I set off, after reloading, to cross the two ravines." (This, by the
+way, would have taken an average Englishman at least an hour's difficult
+and laborious climbing.) "I reached those steeple-rocks on the second
+ridge just in the nick of time to meet the three ibex ascending on the
+other side. The dog was nowhere in sight, though he was still following.
+I had not gained the pass two minutes when the ibex crossed in front,
+travelling slowly over a patch of snow, where I shot the largest of the
+three at about eighty paces distant. He fell to the shot, floundering
+for some seconds in the loose snow, but recovered and went on some
+distance, till the dog at last came up with him and pulled him down."
+
+On surveying the field of operations carefully through the binoculars,
+and estimating the distances traversed respectively by Ramon and his
+three opponents, we could only marvel at the wondrous feat he had
+performed in crossing that fearful gorge, with its miles of snow and
+rocks, in time to cut out the hunted and light-footed ibex. The latter,
+it is true, had something like four times the distance to cover, but
+even that, one would have thought, was far too light a handicap.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+These two ibex were both eight-year old males, and their horns measured,
+respectively:--
+
+ No. 1.--Length, 28-1/2 inches. Circumference, 9-1/4 inches.
+ No. 2.-- " 27-1/2 " " 9 "
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+THE IBEX-HUNTER'S BETROTHAL.
+
+
+Bernal Gonzalvo was the smartest of all the shepherd-lads in the
+mountain village of Valdama, and universally acknowledged as the best
+shot and most successful ibex-hunter in that part of the sierra. But in
+his wanderings near the clouds, his thoughts of late had often strayed
+from his flock: other music than the tinkling of their many bells was
+sweeter to his ear. His thoughts would carry him a thousand times a day
+to the hamlet which nestled far below. In short, Bernal was in love; for
+the first time in his simple life of three-and-twenty years his spirit
+was made captive by a daughter of Eve. Concha, the pretty brunette of
+the _parador_, had heard the old, old story from his lips, and he had
+found favour in her eyes. Concha's good luck made her the envy of all
+the girls of the hamlet. For not only was Bernal a handsome lad of the
+sprightly, graceful type peculiar to the mountain region, but he was
+also rich--he owned over two hundred goats, and had inherited a
+two-roomed _choza_ and an acre of trailing vines.
+
+Engagements in these primitive nooks of the world are not of long
+duration. The following week it was arranged his betrothal should be
+announced, and the _dichos_ declared--the custom of avowing publicly the
+mutual acceptance of nuptial obligations, which in Spain corresponds
+with our "calling the banns." On such occasions it is customary in
+Valdama for the bridegroom-elect to provide a feast whereat the friends
+of the _fiances_ assemble after this preliminary ceremony. The marriage
+itself does not take place till some days later. After the _dichos_ the
+rest of that day is spent in conviviality.
+
+Bernal owned plenty of goats, but, being a lad of some originality, he
+determined to give _his_ "novia" something different to the regulation
+marriage-feast of stewed kid. Concha's nuptials should mark an epoch in
+the annals of Valdama--nothing less than the venison of a wild ibex
+should betoken his plighted troth. He was a mighty hunter, and Concha's
+first offering at his hands should be one appropriate to his fame and
+skill with the rifle-ball.
+
+The season was mid-winter and the snow lay deep and treacherous on all
+the great sierras that overhang his native village. Few are venturesome
+enough to brave the dangers and hard work that the pursuit of ibex in
+winter must entail. All the more reason why Bernal should distinguish
+himself, and all the more acceptable the gift.
+
+On the morning before the ceremony of the _dichos_, he set out at
+daybreak; his gun slung on his shoulder, a crust of brown bread, some
+meat and olives in his "alforjas," and his favourite dog "Vasco" at his
+heel. As the earlier risers among the damsels of the hamlet wended their
+way towards the well for the day's supply of water, each with a big
+brown _cantaro_ poised on her head, they lingered to scan the hill and
+watch Bernal's retreating figure as he leaped upwards from rock to rock,
+ascending towards the snowy pinnacles of Las Lanzas. Soon he disappeared
+from view, turning off into the snow-filled gullet of the _Salto del
+lobo_--the wolfs leap.
+
+The day was bright and glorious as a winter's day in Spain can be, but
+before dusk heavy cloud-banks had darkened the western horizon, and the
+sun sank in lurid light amidst gathering murk that boded ill for the
+night. Darkness had set in, but Bernal had not returned. Hour after hour
+passed by without sign of him, and Concha's anxiety grew more and more
+intense. Not all the sympathy of her maiden friends could cheer her; but
+some consolation the poor girl tried to find in the assurances of the
+rough hunters who came to comfort her--Bernal, they asserted, was safe
+enough; he had been caught in those scudding snow-clouds, and, as many a
+belated herdsman had done before, had sought shelter for the night in
+some cave or crevice, awaiting the return of daylight before attempting
+the descent. Had he, as was probable, succeeded in shooting an ibex, it
+was natural that with such a burden he would find himself unable to
+return in the short winter's day. With these and similar assurances poor
+Concha was fain to console herself.
+
+Before midnight the threatened storm burst: the gale howled through the
+gorges of the sierra and along the narrow street of Valdama. Thickly,
+too, fell the snow; before dawn the whole landscape lay enveloped in the
+white mantle, and the bye-ways of the hamlet were choked to the lintels.
+Snow-wreaths hung in majestic forms over each prominent escarpment,
+threatening destruction to the villagers' stock of olives, figs, and
+vines which grew beneath. The older men gathered in knots discussing
+Bernal's chances of escape from the higher regions; no help was
+possible, and the general opinion was that till the gale had partially
+swept the dry powdery snow into the ravines and hollows, his descent
+would be perilous, even if possible. Again the day passed by without
+sign of the missing bridegroom. The _dichos_ were postponed, and the
+hamlet slept with a heavy load of doubt and fear oppressing its mind.
+
+Thus passed two days--three since the adventurous hunter had set forth,
+but on the fourth morning it was thought an ascent might be attempted.
+Three search parties, each composed of three mountaineers, started in
+different directions, but at nightfall they returned without news or
+trace of lost Bernal.
+
+Next morning the search was renewed. Towards noon the party, led by our
+friend Claudio, descried among the bare rocks of a ridge high above them
+a moving object. Their cries and shots attracted attention, and
+presently poor Vasco, Bernal's faithful companion, struggled to reach
+them. The three men decided to continue calling out Bernal's name, in
+order to convey to the dog the idea that they were in search of his
+master; but this the wise beast seemed to have intuitively understood,
+for he immediately set out in the direction whence he had come. Claudio
+and his two companions followed Vasco's lead for nearly a league, when
+the dog stopped and commenced scratching away the snow from below a
+projecting rock. Here were found the "alforjas" (wallet) of the lost
+man, still containing the bread and olives with which he had set out.
+Vasco at once continued his course, leading the way to one of the
+deepest and most magnificent _canons_ of the whole sierra. Here, on the
+very verge of a precipice of a thousand feet sheer, the dog directed the
+rescuers to his master's gun, which lay buried in the snow within a foot
+of the abyss. The gun was _cocked_--a sure sign to the _serranos_ that
+at the moment of leaving it Bernal had been in presence of game,
+momentarily expecting a shot. Further the dog would not, or could not,
+go; yet no sign of Bernal could be seen on the crag-top. Clearly he must
+have slipped, fallen over into the tremendous abyss beneath. The men
+separated, two going to right and left to seek some spot, some cleft or
+ledge, by which the crag might be descended, the third remaining above
+to guide the search. It was a perilous service on those slippery,
+ice-clad rocks. After an hour's labour, Claudio managed to reach a ledge
+midway down the precipice, just beneath the spot where Guarro remained
+on the height above: and here the dog (which had steadily followed the
+climber whose course at the moment led in the right direction) at once
+indicated a point above some big boulders which lay balanced on the
+narrow shelf. Here, beneath the frozen snow, lay poor Bernal Gonzalvo,
+almost every bone in his once shapely form smashed into splinters by
+that terrible fall of 500 feet. And there, on that dizzy ledge, his
+remains lie still. There they had to be left; for it was found
+impossible to remove the body, or to carry it along the ledges and
+"chimneys" by which the rescue party had descended. It was, after all,
+an appropriate resting-place for the luckless ibex-hunter. The three men
+heaped up a pile of stones to protect his remains from the maw of
+vulture or prowling wolf, and there we may leave him in peace.
+
+Perhaps it would be wiser to leave the story, too, at this point; but we
+are simply historians without aspiration for the novelist's _role_, and
+are impelled to complete faithfully this sad little story of the sierra.
+Concha was, of course, almost beside herself with grief. During the long
+winter months, while the snow whirled round the ravines of Valdama, the
+poor girl remained inconsolable. But time is a wondrous restorer. When
+spring came round, and the vines and chestnuts unfolded their shoots,
+making Valdama all green and beautiful, then youth and buoyant spirits
+reasserted their power, and, less than a twelve-month afterwards, Concha
+had found consolation. Friend Claudio, the discoverer of her lost
+lover's remains, and to whom we are indebted for this little tale, had
+meanwhile become her husband.
+
+[Illustration: Plate XXXVI.
+
+GATEWAY AND VINEYARD.
+
+Page 325.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+ON VITICULTURE IN SPAIN AND PORTUGAL
+
+
+It is a pleasant contrast in the blazing month of July, when one passes
+from the parched stubbles of the corn-land, or the arid half-shade of
+the _olivar_, and enters upon the green luxuriance of the vineyard. Eye
+and mind are refreshed by that broad expanse of spreading vines clothing
+hill and valley with their close-set trailing verdure.
+
+Before us stands the somewhat pretentious gateway in the fence of
+prickly-pear which surrounds the property--a handsome wrought-iron
+lattice gate swung on stone pillars which bear the inscription "Nuestra
+Senora de Piedad,--de Caridad," "Cruz Santa," or some such title.
+Passing through, one walks waist-deep along a narrow pathway amidst
+green vines. No need to ask which is Nature's most favoured plant in
+this sunny land. Stand on one of the Jerez hills at this season and look
+across the districts of the Marcharnudo or Carrascal and see the triumph
+of the vine. All other vegetation pants beneath the pitiless sun; tree,
+shrub, and bush droop withered and lifeless; the grass and wild-flowers
+have disappeared from off the face of the calcined earth, not a blossom
+remains; the bees have lost their employment, and already their
+persecutors, the Bee-eaters, are departing for less torrid regions. Yet
+all around lie thousands of acres of vines in the full exuberance of
+life and vigour, drinking in growth and increase from the very rays that
+are fatal to all beside. Vine roots reach down very great depths into
+the earth--often twenty feet and more, the tap-roots threading their way
+through the slightest cracks or cleavages of what _appears_ solid rock,
+thickening out again as they reach a wider fissure of "fatter" soil, as
+may be seen in road or railway-cuttings.
+
+Nothing can be a greater contrast than the appearance of the vines at
+Christmas or in January when not even a branch survives, each vine then
+being cut back, till nothing remains but a gnarled, knobby stump some
+two feet high, limbless and lifeless. The vineyards then assume a barren
+hungry look, a grey expanse studded with rows of the inanimate stocks.
+
+During early spring much care and labour are devoted to the vineyards.
+The soil around each vine is drawn back with hoes and small adze-shaped
+spades, the blades of which are turned inwards, till the plant stands in
+the centre of a hollowed square, the heaped-up earth around serving to
+catch and direct the moisture towards its roots. For a time the
+vineyards resemble huge chess-boards, till in April the spreading
+tendrils and bright green leaves once more hide the face of the earth
+from view.
+
+[Illustration: VINES IN MARCH.]
+
+The workmen who are employed upon these operations have assigned to
+them a large barn-like room on the ground-floor of the _casa de vinas_,
+destitute of any semblance of furniture or fittings. In this they cook
+their _pucheros_, smoke infinite cigarettes, and when times are
+peaceful, wind up the day with a few touches on the guitar and weird
+Andalucian melodies; but during the troublous periods of anarchy and
+discontent so frequent in unhappy Spain, politics supplant music and
+fierce discussions rage far into the night. Well do we remember the
+violence of these disputes during the _mano negra_ fever, and earlier,
+in the spring of 1872, when living at a vineyard with only a floor
+between us and the peasant politicians. Amidst the babel of contending
+voices one heard perpetually bandied about the names of Zorilla,
+Castelar, Sagasta, and others of the _haute politique_ of Spain. The lot
+of the Spanish labourer is none of the happiest, certainly; but it may
+be doubted if they will mend it by argument and wordy warfare any more
+than by force. Poor fellows! they are the raw material which the
+high-falutin' scoundrels who promote rebellions by popular "cries" and
+_pronunciamentos_ use for their own ends, and then abandon to the
+bullets of _guardas civiles_ or the sabres of the cavalry. But, good
+times or bad, the guitar or the revolutionary rag--whichever it may
+be--are at length laid aside, they stretch themselves in rows on their
+grass-woven mats, like sardines in a keg, and in sleep the troubled
+spirits are at rest.
+
+The vineyards, some of which (especially those in the Canaleja,
+Badalejo, and Caulina districts) have pedigrees that can be traced back
+for upwards of six hundred years, are mostly interspersed with fields of
+corn and groves of olive-trees, and intersected by sandy roads bordered
+with hedges of cane and cactus. Occasional avenues lead to picturesque
+villas embowered in flowering shrubs and trees, among which the adelfa,
+or rose-laurel, the acacia, eucalyptus and cypress are conspicuous. The
+hill-tops are generally crowned with snow-white _casas de vinas_, and
+among the vines there rise little huts of esparto called _bien-te-veos_,
+perched on four tall aloe-poles. These are the look-outs for the guards
+who, armed with old-fashioned fire-locks, keep watch and ward over the
+ripening grapes and grain.
+
+The scene around Jerez at vintage time is a busy and picturesque
+one--the narrow sandy lanes alive with gaudily-trapped mules bearing
+panniers of grapes to the wine-presses, and creaking bullock-carts
+conveying newly-pressed "must" to the Jerez bodegas. The vineyards
+themselves are thronged with vintagers--all of the male sex, for in
+Andalucia woman's right to take any part is altogether ignored.
+
+The vintagers work in gangs of ten, each under the direction of a
+_capataz_, dexterously lopping off the bunches of grapes with their
+ever-ready _navajas_, or bowie knives. The bunches are thrown into
+"tinetas," square wooden boxes, each holding some twenty-five pounds of
+grapes. As these are filled the men hoist them on their heads and march
+off to the _almijar_ or court adjoining the presshouse. Here, after all
+blighted and decayed grapes are removed, they are then spread out to dry
+in the sun, and remain thus exposed for from one to three days, when
+they are ready for the press.
+
+The long wooden troughs, or _lagares_, having been partially filled with
+grapes, a couple of swarthy bare-legged fellows in striped shirts, and
+leathern shoes studded with broad-headed nails, jump into each _lagar_
+and, after spreading out the bunches, commence footing it ankle-deep
+among the crushed fruit, while the juice pours forth through spouts into
+casks placed to receive it. The men dance with a rapid swaying movement
+which is held to express the juice from the grapes in a more
+satisfactory manner than can be accomplished by any known mechanical
+appliance.
+
+[Illustration: Plate XXXVII.
+
+IN A JEREZ BODEGA.
+
+Page 328.]
+
+After being trodden, the grapes are finally subjected to the action of a
+screw, which is fixed over the centre of each _lagar_. The pile of
+half-crushed fruit is enclosed in a band of esparto-matting, and the
+handles of the screw being turned, a wooden slab descends, and the
+remaining juice pours forth through the interstices of the esparto, and
+is collected in the butts beneath. These casks, as filled, are
+hoisted upon bullock-carts, and sent jolting away to the Jerez bodegas.
+
+The _vindimia_, or vintage, is always an animated scene, whether on the
+gently undulating vine lands of Andalucia, or in Portugal, on the steep
+terraced slopes of the mountains which shut in the wild Alto Douro. Afar
+across those Lusitanian glens resound the musical chant and
+characteristic sing-song ditties of the Gallegan peasantry--like
+_cicadas_, they sing and answer each other from hill to hill the
+livelong day, the happy, despised, bond-slaves of the Peninsula, who, at
+vintage-time, flock from their rude barren province of Galicia to revel
+in abundance in the Alto Douro on a couple of testoons, say, tenpence a
+day, supplemented by an allowance of oil, a few salted sardines, rice,
+and stock-fish, and of _broa_, or maize-bread, and the accommodation of
+mother-earth to sleep upon, with a roof overhead through which the
+star-light and the silvery rays of the harvest moon gleam in at a
+hundred chinks and crevices. A happy lot, these Gallegans, happy in the
+possession of content, happier far than their more impulsive brethren,
+the socialistic peasants of Andalucia, of whom we have just spoken.
+
+
+PORTUGAL.--THE VINTAGE IN THE ALTO DOURO.
+
+Fain would we pause here for a few moments among those rugged hills of
+the Douro, amidst which, long ago, we first witnessed the spectacle of
+_vindimia_--a sight which has left a deep and pleasing impression.
+Everywhere on the terraced slopes are scattered groups of vintagers,
+whose not unmusical voices fill the still air. Heavy bullock-carts go
+creaking discordantly up and down the dry boulder-strewn gullies which
+serve as roads; droves of nimble little donkeys, with pig-skins full of
+wine strapped across their backs, or bringing bread for the people
+employed in the vineyards, wend their way along zig-zag bridle-paths;
+farmers with wine-samples and pedlars with their packs on mules,
+equipped with jingling bells, jog leisurely along the mountain roads;
+groups of buxom women, with bright-coloured kerchiefs tied over unkempt
+tresses, and bare brown legs, dexterously detach the bunches and fill
+them into baskets, the men meanwhile lazily smoking under the shade of
+some olive-tree till their burdens are ready. Along the mountain-paths
+file strings of sturdy Gallegans,[62] each bearing upon his shoulders a
+huge basket (_jigo_), crammed with grapes. The _jigo_ weighs nearly a
+hundredweight, and the shoulders of the bearer are protected by a woolly
+sheep-skin. These burdens they bear to the _lagares_, where, when the
+great stone trough is filled, a gang of men step in and commence a sort
+of devil's dance, treading out the rich juice, which, after many hours'
+fermentation, pours in purple streams to the _tonels_ below.
+
+Within the sombre shade of the _lagares_ that strange dance proceeds, at
+first briskly, amid laughter and song, to the squeaking notes of fiddle
+and guitar, the rattle of drum, and the chaff of the women who gather
+round the open verandas; but as the hours roll by and the air grows
+heavy with the exhalations of fermenting "must," the work begins to
+tell, and the treaders, all bespattered with purple juice, move slowly
+and listlessly. In vain the fiddle strikes up anew, the fife squeaks,
+the guitar tinkles, and overseers upbraid. After some eighteen hours of
+this tread-mill exercise in an atmosphere charged with soporific
+influences, music has lost its charm, and authority its terror. The men,
+by this time almost dead-beat, languidly raise first one purple leg and
+then the other, working on far into the watches of the night. Thus has
+wine been made since before Homeric times.
+
+The wine district of the Alto Douro, whence comes our port wine, is a
+singular region, extending some thirty miles along either bank of the
+river, but chiefly on the north side, in the province of Traz-os-Montes,
+and having a varying width of five to ten miles. The whole _paiz
+vinhateiro_ consists of grey and arid-looking mountain-sides, divided by
+deep gullies and ravines, and all so steep that their soil of friable
+mica-schist, more like bits of broken slate than fertile earth, can only
+be cultivated by means of terraces roughly built up, tier above tier.
+Mountain after mountain has its sides thus scored with terraced lines
+like Cyclopean staircases, and on particular slopes as many as 150 may
+be counted rising one above another, the effect of which is most
+peculiar. Here and there a gleaming white _casa_, with its grove of
+orange and cypress-trees; or a water-mill, shaded by oaks and chestnuts,
+breaks the monotony of the landscape. Below, the yellow Douro courses
+swiftly, bearing picturesque boats, high-prowed and long-hulled,
+impelled by a white cloud of sail, and steered by a huge oar worked from
+a pivot in the stern-post, while far above the zone of vineyards rise
+mountain peaks in jagged outline.
+
+Grapes are growing by the wayside, hanging from every crag or tree to
+which a vine can attach its tendrils, and, perhaps most picturesque of
+all, from the _ramadas_ or trellises. These _ramadas_ roof in the
+courtyard of cottage or farm, and even span the village street. As one
+rides through the hamlets which nestle in the valleys of the Douro, the
+heavy purple clusters, six or eight pounds in weight, hang temptingly
+just overhead--temptingly to the stranger to raise his parched lips and
+snatch a mouthful of the juicy spheres. Partridges, too, appreciate the
+luxury of a grape-feast, and in the evening, at this season (September
+and October), their call-note is ubiquitous. But it is terrible work to
+follow them amidst the tangled vines and crumbling terraces under the
+fierce afternoon sun; and a better chance of sport will be found at
+mid-day on the heather-clad ridges above. Thither, after their morning
+feed, they retire to enjoy a siesta, and with the aid of a good dog
+will afford excellent sport till towards 4 P.M., when they return to the
+lower grounds. There is a cooler breeze on these heights, and a superb
+panorama of the wildest region of Lusitania, bounded by the Serras do
+Gerez and Marao and the highlands of Traz-os-Montes. There handsome
+Swallowtails (_Papilio machaeon_) curvette around on powerful wing, and
+among the shaggy heather, rocks, and rough straggling woods, one may
+chance upon a slumbering wolf, the _bete noir_ in the winter of the
+Douro goatherd; though nothing ever fell in the writer's way more
+formidable than a black fox, for the destruction of which was awarded
+the premium fixed by law--300 reis, fifteen pence! It is a land of
+insects, from the singular mantis and merry grasshoppers of many hues,
+to the scorpion, and centipedes of enormous size. As evening falls the
+air rings--the earth seems to vibrate--with the rattle of mole-crickets
+and cicadas, and the gentle tinkle of the tree-frog: glowworms sparkle
+on each dark slope, and by the feeble light of fire-flies we have to
+pick a devious way along miles of broken rock and hanging thicket, by
+what in Portugal passes for a bridle-path.
+
+Twenty years ago the Alto Douro could only be reached on horseback,
+crossing the Serra do Marao by the Pass of Quintella. A pleasant ride it
+was, nevertheless, in September, by Cazaes, traversing the valley of the
+Tamega to Amarante, famed for its peaches and "vinho verde" (green wine,
+so rough as to bring tears to one's eyes); thence up the slopes of the
+Marao, and through the granite defiles of Quintella, which look down
+upon Pezo da Regoa and the valley of the Corgo. It was here--in the
+_Baixo Corgo_--that the port wines of three generations ago were
+vintaged; now all the most valued growths come from further east, beyond
+the Corgo (Cima Corgo).
+
+The return journey in those days (now there is a railway) was by boat,
+down the Douro, seventy miles, which was accomplished in one long day.
+Hour after hour we glide down the rapid current, through green
+vineyards, all resonant with the long-drawn songs of the vintagers. Now
+the cliffs close in, and we pass through a gorge, whose sides rise a
+thousand feet sheer from the water, overgrown with masses of broom,
+heath, gorse, and a variety of evergreen shrubs wherever a ledge or
+cranny afford hold for their roots. Gigantic aloes with broad spiked
+blades and towering stalks stud the rocky declivities, and the cactus,
+wild fig, and other sub-tropical forms of plant-life lend character to
+the scenery. Amidst these crags a pair or two of the handsome black and
+white Neophrons may generally be seen.
+
+Dangerous during times of flood are the snag-set rapids of the Douro, as
+many a little cross or inscription, cut on the impending rocks, bears
+witness. That rude mark indicates the spot where some poor fellow has
+lost his life, perhaps a whole boat's crew; and our men, as we pass each
+memorial tablet, remove their hats and cross themselves with simple
+piety.
+
+At intervals we pass picturesque cargo-boats, upward bound, and
+laboriously making their way against the current, motive power being
+supplied by a gang of watermen hauling on a tow-rope ashore. Where the
+path becomes precipitous, one sees the string of bare-legged men
+walking, as it were, down perpendicular rock faces like flies on a wall,
+each hanging on by the sustaining rope. As already mentioned, there is
+now-a-days a railway to the Upper Douro, and much of the picturesque
+river life of twenty years ago is a thing of the past.
+
+
+SPAIN.--THE VINTAGE IN ANDALUCIA--(CONTINUED).
+
+But we have wandered far from our original subject, and must now leave
+Portugal, and return to the Andalucian vintage. We are not going to
+enter into the technical details of wine manufacture, which have been
+fully described in special treatises; suffice it here to say that from
+the wine-press, the _must_ (or juice) is run direct into casks placed
+beneath, and in which, almost as soon as made, the process of
+fermentation begins. In this state the young wines are removed on
+bullock-carts to the bodegas of Jerez, or San Lucar, and there remain
+till January, when fermentation is complete; the wine is then placed in
+clean casks, and so left to mature. The contents of each cask, however,
+are kept distinct and separate--that is the wine-juice that ran from the
+_lagar_ into one cask is not mixed or blended with another.
+
+And now follows one of the most curious circumstances known in
+oenology. The wines thus made--the uniform produce, be it repeated, of
+a single vineyard, gathered the same day, pressed in the same _lagar_,
+and subjected to identical treatment--develope wholly different
+characters and qualities. Some of the casks prove to be wines of the
+highest grade and value; others indifferent, some coarse, and some even
+vinegar. Then amongst those casks which have developed into the wines
+styled in Jerez _finos_ (_i.e._, soft, dry, and delicate, with a fresh,
+pungent flavour), there is found here and there one which has acquired
+the rare and highly valued _amontillado_ character.
+
+This singular inequality in development appears to be merely a matter of
+chance--of caprice in fermentation; and is quite inexplicable and
+uncontrolled by any known laws or causes. Some years ago an attempt was
+made to bring the light of modern science to bear on the old
+rule-of-thumb methods of "rearing" sherry. An English scientist of high
+standing essayed the task of assuring an approximately equal development
+of all the wines grown in one year and one vineyard. The result,
+however, was unsuccessful; or if an approximate level was attained it
+was, unfortunately, the level of mediocrity, or worse; the wines
+operated upon were destroyed, and the savant left Spain under a cloud.
+
+[Illustration: Plate XXXVIII.
+
+IRRIGATION BY WATER-WHEEL (_NORIA_).
+
+Page 334.]
+
+Although the vine is almost ubiquitous throughout the south of Spain,
+and the production of wine practically unlimited, yet there are only two
+districts which yield the specific wine entitled _sherry_. These two
+districts are the amphitheatre of hills which surround the city of Jerez
+de la Frontera, and a small area of 1,500 acres in Montilla called
+Moriles. It must also be remembered that there are differences in the
+grape as well as in the soil. The vine has several distinct natural
+species, as distinguished from mere varieties (whether artificial or
+climatic), and the character of wine is largely dependent on the vine
+producing it. Vast quantities of wine are grown in adjacent districts,
+good genuine wines, sound and wholesome, but the two localities named
+stand out in marked prominence. The area of the choice _vignobles_
+around Jerez is some 12,000 acres, divisible into four classes according
+to geological formation.[63] The average yield of the fine vineyards
+being two and a half butts per acre, it follows that the total annual
+production of first-class sherry is some 35,000 butts, or thereabouts.
+
+In addition to the above quantity, there are also grown, as above
+stated, large quantities of wine in the adjoining districts. These,
+though pure and genuine, are but of second rank. From what we have
+already written, it will be apparent that in this land of the vine (and
+the same remark applies to Portugal), there is nothing so cheap as the
+grape. There is therefore no temptation to seek substitutes for this,
+its commonest product, or to employ other materials in its place.
+
+Viticulture abstracts from the soil a smaller proportion of alkalies and
+other mineral constituents than either corn or root-crops: hence the
+exhaustion of the soil is slower and the vine can be cultivated on land
+incapable of yielding any other crop. An acre of vines on sandy soil
+will cost but one-half the money to cultivate, and yield three times the
+weight of fruit that an acre of the _afueras_ will produce.[64] It is a
+curious fact that these sandy soils never yield, even phenomenally, a
+cask of fine wine. These better wines require years of keeping to attain
+the perfect development of maturity, while the others, being of a
+lighter description, are as good at first as they ever will be, although
+in appearance and flavour the grapes of the sandy soil may even seem the
+best. These facts serve to explain the difference in cost which must
+exist between the produce of the two classes of vineyard.
+
+[Illustration: A VINEYARD AT JEREZ.]
+
+So much for the wines of Jerez; but sherry, though in British eyes it
+looms the largest amongst the wines of Spain, and is, in fact, of the
+greatest intrinsic value, yet represents a mere drop in the ocean as
+compared with the whole produce of the land. Spain overflows with wine.
+Hardly a village but has its vineyards and its vintage-time, when the
+very earth becomes encarnadined, and when the chief care of the
+peasantry is rather to find casks, goat-skins, or other receptacles
+wherein to store their redundant crop, than wine to fill them withal. In
+traversing many a hundred dusty leagues of the wildest parts of Spain,
+we seldom failed to replenish our wine-skins with good, rough, red _vino
+del pais_, grown on some neighbouring slope; racy of the soil,
+refreshing, and delicious after hard work under a torrid sun, and at an
+average price of two pesetas the arroba, or about one-third the price of
+"small beer"!
+
+One soon grows to like and appreciate these rough red wines of Northern
+and Central Spain, whose generous fulness and refreshing asperity are so
+requisite in this hot land. After a course of several months of the
+Riojas and Valdepenas of Spain, how thin tastes that first bottle of the
+Bordelais--price two francs--at the breakfast-buffet of Hendaye!
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+SOME FURTHER NOTES ON THE GREAT BUSTARD.
+
+HIS NATURAL HISTORY AND HABITS.
+
+
+Is the Great Bustard polygamous or not? We have watched these birds in
+early spring-time, following every movement, and at quarters close
+enough, with the binocular, to distinguish the very feathers: we have
+inquired of the best and keenest bustard-shooters on the Spanish
+plains--men who ought to know--and yet are unable to give a positive
+opinion. The best ornithological authorities are also silent on the
+point, or treat it in doubtful terms.
+
+The Andalucian Bustards may be divided into two classes:--(1) Those
+which inhabit the undulating corn-lands extending from Jerez and Utrera
+eastwards--by Marchena and Osuna--to Bobadilla and the borders of Malaga
+province, which race is _stationary_ throughout the year; and (2) the
+Bustards of the marisma, or flat delta of Guadalquivir and other great
+rivers, which seasonally shift their ground.
+
+The corn-land Bustards (as we will call them for distinction) are
+altogether a finer and heavier race than those of the marismas, scaling
+commonly twenty-nine, thirty, and thirty-one pounds--some huge old
+_barbones_ exceeding even this great weight; while birds of the
+semi-migratory race run from twenty-four to twenty-six or-seven pounds,
+rarely reaching twenty-eight, and show less of the magnificent
+ruff-development which, in spring, characterizes the old males of the
+campinas of Jerez.
+
+All the year round these latter are to be seen on the same grounds.
+During the months of February and March they are in bands of from five
+to fifty, males and females together, though some of the former already
+begin at early dawn to "show off" and to indulge in those
+ferocious-looking rehearsals preliminary--in appearance--to a pitched
+battle, but which always seem to end in smoke. Round and round, in slow
+majestic circles, revolve the rival _barbones_, each with trailing wings
+and tail expanded, fan-like, over his back, the bristling head carried
+low, the neck swollen out to abnormal thickness. Now, on that stately
+parade, they meet; the champions stand face to face--intent on mortal
+combat. One almost fancies one can hear the rustle as they shake out
+their wings and set every feather on end--each striving to daunt and
+demoralize his opponent by a display of apparent bulk. But the issue is
+disappointing; only on three or four occasions have we seen battle
+actually joined, and then the scuffle only lasted a few seconds.
+
+It is, nevertheless, a magnificent spectacle to watch, perhaps, ten or a
+dozen of these huge game-birds, all "showing off" under the early rays
+of an April sun, and set off amidst the green corn and flower-spangled
+herbage--each as he slowly struts round, "echando la rueda," displaying
+alternately the swollen gorget and yellow-barred back, then the white
+underparts.
+
+This state of affairs continues during March and into April; rehearsals,
+but no actions--at least we have seen none. The males really appear to
+show off rather one to another than to the females, which, though not
+far off, exhibit no more visible interest or concern than does our grey
+hen under similar circumstances. About the 20th of April the hen lays
+her two big greenish eggs amidst the growing corn, and disappears; but
+even this circumstance has no appreciable effect upon the other sex, who
+continue for weeks their complacent performances in spite of the fact
+that the females--for whose behoof these displays were presumably
+inaugurated--are no longer present to admire, as they have now commenced
+the duties of incubation.
+
+During the earlier period of this courtship, and at the time when
+pairing presumably occurs, it is extremely rare to see a _single_ male
+associated with a circle of females--as is the case with black game.
+Each band is composed of mixed sexes, females preponderating. We have
+often seen _two_ males along with five or six females, but never _one_
+alone; another band consists of three males and seven females; a third
+of five and thirteen; a fourth of ten and thirty, males and females
+respectively; but _none_, as just stated, are formed of a pair, or of a
+single male with his harem, as one would expect if the species were
+polygamous in the ordinary sense.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+After incubation has commenced the males remain in separate packs during
+summer, and take no share in domestic duties.
+
+Turning now to the Bustards of the _marisma_, we must first explain that
+there are no bustards in the marisma proper--_that_ is the home of the
+Flamingo. But here, for the sake of convenience, we include the whole of
+the plains, some pasturage, some arable, which, _together with_ the
+_marisma_ proper, form the delta of the Guadalquivir; and especially
+those parts known as the Isla Mayor and Isla Menor, so-called "islands"
+formed by the triple channel of that great river.
+
+These "islands" comprise vast areas of level pasturage--in winter bare
+of herbage, almost dry mud, but by April, knee-deep in richest grass and
+vegetation, resonant with the "whit-ti-wit" of unnumbered quail. On
+these flowery plains are reared some of the choicest breeds of the
+fighting bull--those, for example, of the Marques del Saltillo--which
+may here be admired at leisure.
+
+The first point in the life-history of these Bustards of the marisma is
+their semi-migratory character. We do not mean to infer more than that
+they are _locally_ migratory, shifting their ground according to season
+and food-supply, but not leaving the country or crossing any sea. Africa
+is the only country they could go to, but _Otis tarda_ appears to be
+unknown, or at any rate very scarce, in Morocco and Algeria. Their
+migrations are confined to Spanish territory. In the middle of May,
+while ibex-shooting, we have observed a flight of seven Bustards in the
+heart of the Sierra de Ronda, passing high over those lofty peaks.
+
+On these plains there are Bustard of one sex _or_ the other (not always
+both) at all seasons. The males leave the pasturage for the corn in
+February and March, followed later by the females as the laying season
+approaches. Both sexes are then seen in mixed bands as above
+described--two or three up to a dozen males in each band composed of
+five or six times that number of females, but _never_ in single pairs or
+a single male consorting with a female retinue.
+
+Here also we have enjoyed watching, at sunrise, the imposing
+performances of the males--often five or six bands in view at once,[65]
+but, as before, without detecting any specific action--nothing beyond
+"show."
+
+The eggs are laid in the last week of April (we found two females,
+already sitting each on two eggs, on the 26th), and about mid-May the
+males disappear. To Africa they have gone, the local shooters aver; but
+this, we know, is not the case, and are far from sure that the missing
+males are not simply hidden amidst the vast stretches of corn, then near
+four feet high, pending their moult.
+
+Bustards moult very severely, casting all quill-feathers (as wild geese
+do) almost simultaneously. Hence, at the end of May, they become for a
+time incapable of flight, and naturally, under such conditions, seek the
+utmost seclusion, perhaps deceiving people into the illusion that they
+had gone, when they are really simply in hiding, which the rank summer
+vegetation renders easy enough. After eggs are laid, the males certainly
+desert their mates entirely, forming themselves into bachelor coteries,
+and leaving to the female the entire burden of the nursery.
+
+Bustards take two years or more to acquire maturity: the year-old males
+are hardly larger than adult females, possess neither ruff nor whiskers,
+and do not breed. They probably continue growing for three or four
+years, or even more. An old _barbon_, when winged and brought to bay,
+will turn and attack its aggressor, hissing savagely and uttering a low
+guttural bark, "Wuff! wuff!" Except on such occasions we have not heard
+any vocal sound from a Bustard; nor do they, when winged, ever attempt
+to escape by running.
+
+Though the general habit of the Bustard is graminivorous--his food
+consisting of the green corn, both blades and shoots, of grain and green
+herbage of all kinds, yet in summer, when the corn is cut, he develops
+for a time a keenly carnivorous character, catching and swallowing whole
+the rats and mice which, at that season, swarm on the stubbled plain, as
+well as the young of ground-breeding birds, buntings, larks, &c. Nor is
+a reptile wholly despised--a small snake or green lizard is readily
+included in his menu, and at all seasons they are very fond of insects,
+especially grasshoppers and locusts.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+THE LITTLE BUSTARD.
+
+(OTIS TETRAX.)
+
+
+While the Great Bustard takes chief place amongst the game-birds of
+Europe, both as regards size and sporting qualities, his smaller
+relative, the Little Bustard--in Spanish, _Sison_--must certainly head
+the list of the wily and unapproachable.
+
+Against the Great Bustard, watchful as he is, fair measures can
+successfully be brought to bear, but no skill that we know of--none,
+that is, of legitimate sporting kind--will avail against the _Sison_. We
+may at once classify him as the most difficult of all game-birds to
+bring to bag. That he is frequently shot is no disproof of this
+assertion. The birds being abundant, it would be strange indeed if none
+fell "haphazard" to chance shots when the sportsman is in pursuit of
+other game.
+
+The habits of the Little Bustard are, in general, much the same as those
+of the larger species. They frequent, in the main, the same ground; the
+young are reared amidst the security of the ripening corn; in autumn
+they form into packs or bands, and spend their days upon the open plain.
+
+We have not, however, met with these birds on the dead-level plains, so
+attractive to the _Abutarda_, and their preference is undoubtedly for
+more undulated lands. We have observed them as far up as corn grows on
+the foothills of the sierra.
+
+In the month of April the Little Bustards are _all paired_, differing in
+this respect from the free-loving (?) _Otis tarda_. The males have now
+acquired the banded throats, and indulge in love-antics, much after the
+fashion of the blackcock. Far away on the prairie one's eye catches
+something white, which disappears and again appears. On focussing the
+field-glass upon the distant object it is seen to be a male _Sison_,
+which, with drooping wings and expanded tail, slowly revolves on his
+axis. Now he rises to full height, displaying all the white on his
+plumage; anon his breast seems depressed to earth, and all the while a
+strange bubbling note is uttered, monosyllabic, but repeated in rapid
+spondees.[66]
+
+In vain one scans the surrounding ground to catch a glimpse of the
+female; she remains crouched among the scant growth of palmetto, or
+rough herbage, invisible: yet, we may presume, admiring the "play" of
+her lord.
+
+Not yet have the sentiments of love overmastered those of
+self-preservation: hence an attempt to gain closer quarters will be
+unsuccessful, the male bird rising on clattering wing at three gunshots,
+his partner following soon after. He has not yet, moreover, attained the
+fullest beauty of his nuptial plumage. By the middle of May his banded
+throat, with its double gorget of black and white, has become distended
+like a jargonelle pear, the rich glossy-black plumes at the back long
+and hackle-like. At this period--end of May--the males may be secured by
+careful approach under the stalking-horse. And now the females, already
+beginning to lay, become, of course, tame enough.
+
+The four olive-green eggs are deposited among the herbage at the end of
+May--four is the number we have seen in the few nests discovered--and a
+second clutch is, according to Mr. Saunders (who, we have found by
+experience, makes no statement unless he has good grounds for it),
+frequently laid in the latter part of July. The males, all through the
+tedious business of incubation, remain hard by, ever constant to their
+sitting partners, and not "packing" or deserting them, as is the wont of
+their less faithful cousins, _Otis tarda_. Not till the young are on the
+wing are the _Sisones_ seen again in packs. This marked difference of
+habit between congeneric species so closely allied as the two Bustards
+is very curious.
+
+[Illustration: LITTLE BUSTARDS--MAY.]
+
+Possessed of keen powers of eye and ear, combined with the strongest
+ideas of self-preservation all round, the Little Bustard is never--in a
+sporting season--surprised in covert. His favourite haunts are in rough
+country, where he has every opportunity of remaining concealed himself,
+while yet able to survey all that passes for a wide radius around.
+Rarely does one descry a band of these birds _on the ground_. The loud
+rattle of wings as a pack springs 200 yards away is usually the first
+intimation of their presence. If, by some lucky chance, they are seen on
+the ground, even then the tactics employed to secure the larger bustard,
+namely, by ambushing the guns in a half-circle on their front, and
+driving the birds towards them, seldom, very seldom, come off. The
+_Sisones_ almost invariably take flight, from some unexplained
+cause--their extreme shyness and acute senses of sight and hearing are
+the only explanation--before the guns and drivers have reached their
+respective points. Or, even if the pack is enclosed within the deadly
+circle, they will still sometimes manage to escape by springing up high
+in air, and passing out at impossible altitudes.
+
+During the fiery heats of summer these birds may be shot by the artifice
+of the bullock-cart--already described in the chapter on Great
+Bustard--or be exhausted by repeated flights; but neither of these plans
+possess the merits of really attractive sport, while the second involves
+hard work under a heat that few men can stand.
+
+There are, however, times when the Little Bustard may be secured upon
+easier lines. Upon occasion, in autumn, they become so enamoured of
+certain spots, beguiled by the plentiful supply of grain scattered
+around the _eras_, or levelled threshing-grounds out in the open field,
+that, like greedy blackcocks on a Northumbrian stubble, they "take a
+haunt" (_toman la querencia_), and allow themselves, evening after
+evening, to be surprised and shot. This, however, is not a regular habit
+as with the blackcocks, but rather an exceptional case.
+
+Standing, partially concealed by my horse, near one of these _eras_, on
+one occasion a band of Little Bustards passed so near and in such close
+order that three brace fell to the two barrels. On another memorable
+autumn afternoon I bagged, under similar conditions, eight of these
+bustards, besides four of the larger kind, the former all shot as they
+flew in at dusk towards an open threshing-ground.
+
+The sportsman on the plains is frequently apprised of a passing band of
+Little Bustards by the peculiar hissing sound made by their wings in
+flight, different from that of any other bird, but most resembling the
+rustle of the Golden-eye; but they are rarely so confiding as to pass
+within shot. The birds seen in the markets are, however, obtained, in
+nine cases out of ten, at such chance moments.
+
+In conclusion, we repeat, that whilst against every other game-bird we
+know there is some ordered plan of campaign available, yet all efforts
+to outmatch the astute _Sison_ are vain, and end in vexation of spirit.
+He is a bird, as the Spanish put it, of very _unsympathetic_ nature
+("muy antipatico") towards the fowler, and this is the more to be
+regretted as his flesh is of fine pheasant-like flavour.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+A WINTER CAMPAIGN IN DONANA.
+
+(NOVEMBER.)
+
+
+On a bright November forenoon we embarked from the weed-girt jetty at
+Bonanza on a big falucha, manned by four sun-bronzed watermen, and in
+whose spacious storage lay a pile of sporting impedimenta--guns and
+rifles, baggage, bedding, and the rest.
+
+We were a party of eight--English and Spanish nationalities equally
+represented--and old acquaintances, associated in many branches of
+sport. All had come some distance to the rendezvous--some from Seville
+and Madrid, two from England--to pass a couple of weeks at the historic
+preserves of Southern Spain, the Coto de Dona Ana. As the swarthy crew
+let fall their oars into the tide of Guadalquivir, all eyes turned
+eagerly to the opposite shores, so full of pleasant reminiscences. 'Tis
+pleasant, too, to know that as the moorings are cast loose we lose touch
+of the world and its civilization; we leave behind us post and telegram,
+thought and care, and, with them, perhaps, some measure of ease and
+luxury--from all these things the broad flood of Boetis and leagues of
+trackless waste will now divide us; we are free to revert to primaeval
+savagery, and we greatly rejoice thereat. Amidst these happier thoughts
+arose just a qualm of speculation as to whether all the multifarious
+arrangements incidental to such campaigns had been duly fulfilled, and
+if we should find our people, horses and mules, awaiting us at the
+appointed tryst.
+
+[Illustration: Plate XXXIX.
+
+A SPANISH JUNGLE--THE ANGOSTURAS.
+
+Page 348.]
+
+The mid-day sun was now lighting up the scene after a morning of mist
+and rain; to the left lay the town of San Lucar, with its ancient castle
+looming above the white crenellated walls and spacious bodegas, and
+the busy strand of Bonanza, celebrated by Cervantes in _La Ilustre
+Fregona_ as a rendezvous for ruffians, smugglers, and pirates. On the
+stream floated craft of many descriptions, from the London steamer
+receiving her cargo of manzanilla at the wharf to the falucha-rigged
+"ariels" and lumbering fishing-sloops--vessels not unlike the caravels
+in which, four centuries ago, Columbus set sail from the neighbouring
+port of Palos to discover a New World, when
+
+ "A Castilla y a Leon
+ Nuevo Mundo dio Colon ."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+The river at this point, close to its confluence with the sea, has a
+width of two miles, but the long lateen-sail, bellying out before a
+gentle _poniente_, bore us rapidly to the silent strand, where our
+horses stood awaiting us under a giant pine. No short time was spent in
+landing baggage, for the falucha lay aground a stone's throw from the
+shore; but at length all was landed, stowed in the mule-packs, and we
+set out on the long ride.
+
+It had been intended to have one "drive" this afternoon, but these
+delays, and the customary tardiness of Spanish trains and travel
+generally, frustrated this plan, and it was already dark ere the head
+of our cavalcade sighted the welcome light displayed from the turrets of
+the ancient shooting lodge of Donana. Though now in a state of partial
+ruin, the old Palacio still shows signs of former grandeur, and has
+been, in bygone days, a favourite sporting retreat for more than one
+Spanish king. As we approached its glimmering lights amidst the darkness
+of a November evening, the resonant _konk, konk! kerronk, kerronk!_ of
+the wild geese, the mournful cries of plover and curlew, and the
+startled splash of wild ducks, are evidence of its lonely marsh-girt
+site and prophetic of sport to come.
+
+Around the pile of logs cheerily blazing in the spacious hearth we
+gather, relieved to find that all the transport and commissariat
+arrangements had this time come off without a hitch--no slight matter
+where everything, from a lemon or a hen's egg to a portable bath, from a
+match to a mattress, has to be transported on mule-back the whole forty
+miles of rough country (and river) we had just travelled. Our Galician
+cook and steward, half sportsman, half Bohemian, had come on two days in
+advance, and strangers were agreeably surprised to find anything to
+eat--except perhaps stewed lynx or fricasseed flamingo--in this outer
+wilderness. Then, as we gathered round the blazing hearth, enjoying such
+coffee and _breva_ cigars as are only combined in Spain, the keepers
+come in with their reports--keepers of a different type to British
+ideals, Bartolo, Larrios, and Manolo, copper-skinned, pelt-clad and
+unkempt, and Trujillo, the _guarda mayor_, who enters with lordly
+salaam, his jacket hung on one great shoulder as on a peg--a picture of
+Cervantes' Quixote. These are four of the ten keepers who, from father
+to son, have occupied the posts on the property for generations.
+
+[Illustration: Plate XL.
+
+PALACIO DE DONANA.
+
+Page 350.]
+
+The intention was to devote the first few days to the small game of the
+adjacent plains, but our first operation in the morning was a
+deer-drive. This, however, proved blank, for, though several were
+seen--five stags breaking back--none, except a few hinds and one
+_bareta_, or yearling stag, whose incipient horns (hardly longer than
+his ears) were not distinguished by the gun past whom he broke, came
+forward to the shooting line. The writer's position was on the crest of
+a sand-ridge, with only the covert of a dead cistus bush: nothing,
+however, tested his powers of concealment except a few partridge and a
+pack of stone-plovers. The sandy glen which the post commanded was,
+nevertheless, plentifully tracked over by deer, and three wild pigs had
+passed inwards into the covert that morning.
+
+After this beat, shot-cartridges were substituted for ball, and for the
+rest of that day and several following ones _caza menor_ was the order
+of the day. The system of small-game shooting adopted on these plains
+combines both walking up and driving at the same time, and requires a
+few words of description. It must be borne in mind that we always have
+on one side of us--towards the north and east--the marisma, practically
+at this season an inland sea, and upon this circumstance the system is
+based. The plan of campaign consists in driving the game down upon the
+marisma; a line of eight, ten or twelve guns each 100 or 150 yards
+apart, and with several beaters placed in the interval, is formed at a
+distance of three or four miles inland. This line occupies upwards of a
+mile in length, and as it advances towards the marisma, obviously
+encloses whatever game may be concealed in three or four square miles of
+country, the greater part of which (the game) has a fair chance of
+coming in the way of one point or another of the line of guns. Some care
+is needed to preserve the formation of the beat, which is done by
+mounted keepers, who also see that the "points" or wings are thrown
+slightly in advance.
+
+Presently there occurs an obstacle; already we have waded through some
+wettish spots; but how is it possible to cross this broad lagoon? On the
+right a _mancha_, one of those thickets of tree-heath and brooms, all
+interlaced with thorny briars, bars the way: these _manchas_ are
+impenetrable--we have proved this--save to the wild boar or the badger.
+In the other direction the water stretches far--we can see the mounted
+beaters already splashing through it. In England one does not walk
+through river, lake, or pond merely because it lies in one's course,
+but this is not England, and as, after all, the bottom is sound and
+moderately level, if one can keep the cartridges dry, the sun will soon
+dry the rest.
+
+The density of the scrub varies also: sometimes for a short distance one
+has to push through thickets where every step is a struggle with hard
+dried cistus stems, and where broken ground, ravines and thorny jungle
+make perspiration flow, and ill conduce to taking those smart chances
+that offer overhead at inopportune moments.
+
+To a northerner it is hard to believe that it is midwinter while almost
+every tree remains leaf-clad, and the brushwood all green and
+flower-spangled. Arbutus, rosemary and tree-heath (_Erica arborea_) are
+already in bloom; while bees buzz in the shoulder-high heather, and suck
+honey from its tricoloured blossoms--pink, purple and violet. Strange
+flies 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 here and there one of the
+larger sphinxes (_S. convolvuli_), each with his long proboscis inserted
+deep in the tender calix. Not even the butterflies are entirely absent.
+We have noticed several gorgeous species at Christmas-time, including
+the painted lady and red admiral, the southern wood-argus, Bath white
+and clouded yellow, with _Lycaena telicanus_, _Thaeis polyxena_, _Megaera_,
+and many more. On the warm sand bask pretty green and spotted lizards,
+apparently asleep, in the sunshine, but all alert to dart off on
+slightest alarm, disappearing like a thought in some crevice among the
+roots of the cistus.[67]
+
+[Illustration: Plate XLI.
+
+BREAKFAST-TIME--DONANA.
+
+Page 352.]
+
+Gradually, as the line approaches the flat shores of the marisma, the
+"driving" shots increase in number and the cry of _pajaro_, the Spanish
+equivalent to "mark over," becomes incessant. _Pajaro, pajaro_, the
+magic word comes borne on the breeze from right and left, dwelt on by
+the Andaluz till the final "o" dies away in prolonged cadence; and
+there, far away ahead, appear sundry dark specks in the sky, rapidly
+growing in size as the redlegs wheel back towards the spot where we
+crouch behind a lentiscus. Now they are overhead, for two brief seconds
+within reach of a well-directed aim--then, in happy moments, a brace of
+redlegs will bounce on the bents.
+
+Here every little thicket or clump of brushwood holds some of the birds
+that have been driven forward, and even on the barest ground some have
+found refuge behind a tuft of grass or palmetto. Everywhere partridges
+start up from the slightest covert, and one sees them running forward
+ere they rise. But the hottest work occurs in the belt of rush and
+reed--in the _juncos_ that border the marisma. The finale is short, but
+it is sweet, and the man who has stopped handsomely the rocketers that
+sped to his lot has a reputation ready made.
+
+Such is, in outline, the system of an _avero_, several of which can be
+carried out on a winter's day.
+
+The partridges, unwilling to run save among the scrub, usually rise at
+longish range on bare patches, and mount rapidly in air, their flight
+rather resembling that of black-game than of our grey partridge, and as
+they wheel back fast and high, and at all angles, they test the best
+skill of the gunner. Besides partridge and rabbits, an odd pair of
+mallards will often rise from some rushy hollow, and from the drier
+reeds a quail or two spring with their smart game-like dash. The small
+Andalucian bush-quail (_Turnix sylvatica_) is occasionally shot, and
+crossing the more open ground, among short scrub of tamarisk and
+juniper, a few hares will be added to the bag. These are of the small
+southern race, _Lepus mediterraneus_, weighing only five or six pounds,
+more brindled in colour and with warmer shades on shoulders and flanks
+than ours. One of them being hemmed in, was this afternoon swimming a
+shallow pool when she attracted the attention of a Southern Peregrine
+falcon (_Falco punicus_) which was waiting on the partridge in front of
+our line. This falcon had already made several fine stoops at the flying
+game, all unsuccessfully, when the sight of a hare in difficulties
+brought him overhead, and, in the act of poising, a double shot laid
+both low.
+
+[Illustration: A ROYAL HEAD--DONANA.]
+
+After two or three days with the small game, it was decided to give the
+deer a turn. The sun shone brightly as we rode out to the ground
+selected for the day's sport, and a gentle breeze blew from a favourable
+direction. The first beat, nevertheless, proved blank--only hinds
+passing through the line, which served to give us, for a moment, a
+flutter of excitement as they crashed through the under-wood, and dashed
+away at redoubled speed. On the next drive several stags were seen--some
+broke back, but three ran the gauntlet of our line at different points,
+offering good opportunities to three of our guns, two of which, however,
+were not accepted. The third hart was stopped in the midst of a last
+bound by a clean rifle-shot at long range--a fine head of twelve tines.
+
+[Illustration: DEAD LYNX.]
+
+The guns were next placed along a line of gigantic clumps of bulrushes
+which extended for miles with narrow glades, and thick, matted jungle
+between. This beat resulted successfully: seven shots were fired, two
+deer escaped, but two deer and two boars were killed. A curious incident
+also occurred with a lynx: the beast was evidently wounded by a lucky
+rifle-shot, and presently, the dogs ran her to bay in a neighbouring
+_mancha_. Here one of us who had fired the first shot followed, when,
+coming unexpectedly upon her in a narrow opening, the lynx being
+enclosed between man and dogs, made a desperate spring to pass by; the
+writer, in stepping aside, tripped and fell prostrate on his back, right
+under the furious beast--never did man rise more promptly! luckily
+without a scratch, and the next moment the lynx lay gasping out its life
+on the sand.
+
+After this beat rifles were exchanged for smooth-bores, a line formed,
+and we shot our way back to the lodge, securing some twenty brace of
+partridge and other small game, besides another stag, which, all too
+drowsy, had permitted our line to advance too near ere he sprang from
+his lair. Shot was quickly exchanged for ball, and as the hart ran
+broadside on and within one hundred yards of two guns, he was struck in
+three places, and the dogs soon pulled him down. This was a very old
+beast, but only carried eight points, the "bay" antlers being entirely
+wanting, and the double-tops curiously bent inwards. This small-game
+beat having brought us to the verge of the marisma, we finished a
+successful day's sport with an hour's flight-shooting, during which five
+geese and nearly fifty teal and wigeon were brought to bag. The day's
+results were thus:--4 stags, 2 boar and a lynx, 23-1/2 brace small game,
+and 54 head of wildfowl.
+
+This evening there was performed the time-honoured ceremony of crowning
+with the laurel a neophyte in _caza mayor_. Dark-eyed Petra, the
+recognized belle of a region where it must be admitted that rivals were
+few, headed the motley procession of guards, beaters, and miscellaneous
+folk from the lower regions, and gracefully invested the blushing brows
+of Santiago, who knelt before her, with a chaplet of flowering arbutus.
+Then the loving cup passed round, and each drank to the health of the
+fair donor and the wearer of the crown. There followed a scene of
+festivity and ordered revels. The spacious court-yard was lit up by a
+blazing bonfire, and in its lambent light danced stalwart figures
+arrayed in the picturesque costume of rural Andalucia, while maiden
+forms alternately revolved and pirouetted in graceful minuet or
+fandango, keeping time to the guitar, and each accompanying her own
+movements with the castanets. We were told that a trio of brunettes had
+travelled the long four leagues from the hamlet of Rocio to our lonely
+quarters to join the festive scene, but felt too much flattered by the
+compliment to inquire if such was really the case.
+
+[Illustration: GROUP OF FOREST-GUARDS.]
+
+The revelry continued till far on in the night, but for all that, a
+faithful few were taking a hasty cup of coffee at 5 A.M. preparatory to
+an early attack on the greylags. A strong west wind howled across the
+waste, whistling through the cracks of roof and rickety
+window-frames--favourable omens--and before the sun rose we were far out
+in the marsh, lying concealed on the furthest projecting points of dry
+land. Then, as the approaching dawn set the wildfowl in motion, the
+half-lit skies were serried with hurrying files, and the cold air
+resounded with the cries of the various ducks and geese. Our luck this
+morning was hardly so good as expected, but four guns brought in 7
+geese, 21 teal, and 8 mallards.
+
+[Illustration: PANNIER-PONY AND GAME.]
+
+This day again proved a lucky one--several deer and a lynx, besides
+minor game, being piled on the panniers of the carrier-ponies before
+night. The lynx was a specially handsome beast, an old male with bushy
+whiskers, his tawny pelt boldly splashed with dark spots. He was killed
+by a rifle-ball when going at top speed across a glade. The writer's
+mind that evening was, nevertheless, tinged with regret. While posted as
+"point-gun," amidst some lovely but very broken forest ground at a
+remote _corral_, I observed an object move slightly among some young
+pine-scrub in a hollow on my front. It was the antlers of a stag; and
+soon, by the forest of ivory tips, I perceived they belonged to a hart
+of no ordinary degree. Presently the owner emerged from the covert and
+for several seconds stood, fully exposed, at 100 yards, an enormous
+beast, looking as black as coal against a background of dead yellow
+flags. He presented a certain shot; but, alas! was still _within the
+beat_; and though the stag stood in a slight hollow where rising ground
+behind rendered the shot perfectly safe, I hesitated to break the rules,
+and the chance was lost--the grand beast going away wide to the right.
+The vision of that stag, with his broad and branching head and
+unnumbered points, his massive frame and glossy coat, haunted me awake
+and asleep that night and for many another.
+
+[Illustration: SPANISH RED DEER--A MOUNTAIN-HEAD FROM MORENA.]
+
+A few weeks afterwards, when "still-hunting" with a single Spanish
+companion in the same district, we came somewhat unexpectedly (it was
+only 4 P.M.), on a stag quietly splashing through a marsh-belt that
+separated two patches of forest. The beast was more than half a mile
+off; but on reaching the place after a detour, we observed him standing
+under the shade of some trees 400 yards distant. On putting the glass on
+him, to my intense joy, I recognized my old friend of a month ago--there
+he stood flicking at the flies, the _black stag_ beyond a shadow of
+doubt! A nearer direct approach was not possible; but Jose suggested
+that by going round in a wide circuit and giving the stag his wind, he
+would probably move him my way. This manoeuvre we proceeded to carry
+out, and in half an hour's time I had the satisfaction of observing the
+great beast's first signs of suspicion. He had, meanwhile, laid down;
+now he rose and moved uneasily away, stopping and sniffing alternately.
+Then he seemed to have made up his mind, turned deliberately, and slowly
+trotted in my direction. Jose had managed the business in a masterly
+way--never showing. Already the stag had reached a long range shot, when
+from the nearer, opposite, covert dashed five hinds, which came
+splashing through the water, right between me and the big stag. How
+persistently those confounded hinds interposed their useless bodies
+right between the foresight and its mark! Already the black hart was
+within thirty yards of the water's edge and the shelter of the forest;
+when, for a few moments, I got a clear view of his broadside at rather
+long range, took a full sight with the 100-yard flap up, and fired.
+Thud! went the conical Paradox ball right on the point of his shoulder,
+and he pitched forward, stone-dead, in the water. It was a pretty shot,
+well placed, though rather high, breaking the spine close below the
+withers. Such shots are, of course, instantly fatal; but are too risky
+to _try for_, since they come within an inch or two of a clean miss!
+
+There is a degree of mental gratification in occasionally "pulling off"
+shots of this kind--that is, in killing _clean_ with ball a large animal
+in full career, and at long distance--that must probably be experienced
+to be appreciated. And, after all, how much is due to the marvellous
+precision and power of modern sporting weapons! This stag carried
+sixteen points, and his horns measured along the curve 32 inches, with a
+sweep of 28 inches. In weight he probably exceeded any we have shot on
+the Spanish plains, and his rich velvety pile was conspicuously dark and
+glossy.
+
+One other incident, with a moral: towards the end of one campaign an
+afternoon was devoted to burning the _carrizales_, or bamboo-brakes,
+which in places form belts of jungle, extending over several miles, and
+afford secure harbour for various wild animals, including, occasionally,
+deer. These places, owing partly to the impervious nature of the covert
+and partly to the quicksands and quaking bogs with which the jungle is
+interspersed, cannot be traversed: hence the only effectual means of
+driving out the game which may lie within their shelter is by fire. The
+writer, to-day, though the first gun in line, was posted some half a
+mile back from the commencement of the beat, and was endeavouring to
+make a hasty sketch of the beautiful landscape of cane-brake, bamboo,
+and marsh-land which stretched away before us. The dry sedges and canes
+were fired at several points: but hardly had the distant smoke-wreaths
+begun to curl upwards in the clear still air, than a first-rate stag
+slowly trotted across the open, right before me. I had not seen him
+come; the sketch-book was in hand; the gun--loaded in _both_ barrels
+with shot, for cats and the like--lay on the ground; truly a magnificent
+bungle! One ball-cartridge was inserted ere the game, still unconscious
+of an ambush, was passing, full broadside, at 80 or 90 yards--as easy a
+shot as need be wished. But in the flurry of unreadiness, I forgot to
+raise the sight, and the ball passed immediately beneath the breast,
+missing both forelegs. Again a cartridge had to be changed; and now the
+stag was bounding away, end-on, at 150 yards. This time the aim was
+refined and nerves braced by a very sense of shame, and the impact of
+the ball was distinctly, though faintly, heard. On went the stag,
+disappearing over rising ground behind, and hardly had the cartridges
+been replaced, than a second hart, breaking back, offered a long and
+infinitely more difficult shot; but, after one vertical bound, like that
+of a lightly-hooked salmon, dropped stone-dead in his tracks. Soon
+afterwards a small stag with three hinds showed on the outer edge of the
+jungle; but, though more than one express rifle was levelled at him, the
+distance was too great (300 or 400 yards), and the bullets uselessly
+ricochetted across the swampy wastes. Towards the end, two wild-cats
+bounded from the fringe of burning bamboos, and simultaneous shots
+stretched both lifeless among the tamarisks.
+
+[Illustration: A STAG OF THIRTEEN POINTS.]
+
+The spectacle from our posts was remarkable, the whole area, many
+hundred acres, enveloped in smoke; here and there tongues of flame shot
+upwards as the flying sparks carried forward the conflagration across
+some marsh-channel and renewed the dying blaze. Dense black clouds
+rolled away to leeward, amidst which hovered swarms of swallows and
+insect-feeding birds with an outer fringe of kites, kestrels and
+magpies, all preying on belated locusts and coleoptera. Legions of
+mice--common house-mice, as far as we could judge--with land-and
+water-rats, fled from the fiery jungle; here and there a grizzly
+mongoose hurried off up the sloping dune; otters, genets and badgers
+were seen at various points, while coots and bitterns, rails, crakes,
+and waterhens flapped about, half-dazed with fright. Over the smoking
+brakes swept buzzards and marsh-harriers which, forgetting their fears
+in opportunity, pounced boldly on the homeless and helpless.
+
+As soon as it was over, we went eagerly to examine the tracks of the big
+stag. Yes! blood was there sure enough--whole streams of it; but the
+verdict of the _guardas_ was prompt and emphatic--"that stag you will
+never get. See! the blood is all at one side. The bullet has merely
+grazed his off-flank, causing a flesh-wound which bleeds much, but does
+no vital harm." They were right. Impelled by shame and self-reproach, we
+followed the trail for miles; but though we twice sighted our quarry
+afar, it was evident he had sustained no serious injury, and as he
+headed for a wild region where leagues of jungle afforded secure refuge,
+we were fain, at dusk, to acknowledge defeat, and to leave him in peace.
+
+Now for the moral--though perhaps it hardly needs pointing. Never
+attempt to sketch, or otherwise play the fool, when every energy should
+be concentrated on the sport in hand. One thing well done is as much as
+poor mortals are capable of at one time.
+
+Thus, amidst varied and abundant sport, fun and good-fellowship, amidst
+lovely scenes and a glorious climate, sped all too quickly those happy
+days in Donana--some devoted to big game, some to small; on others we
+divided forces, one party going to the partridges, or quail, another
+preferring wildfowl; while those who had confidence in their skill with
+the rifle elected to _rastrear_--that is, to track a deer to his lair,
+following the _rastro_, or spoor, of some big hart, perhaps for leagues,
+across the broken plains and _corrales_, with only the uncertain
+prospect of a difficult, often impossible, snap-shot after all. But
+there is a reward in seeing the skill in woodcraft displayed by the
+Spanish _guardas_, who seem to diagnose by intuition the unfulfilled
+ideas and desires which, some hours previously, have been passing
+through the mind of the hart, whose faint _rastro_ they follow with
+the certainty and patience of a bloodhound. This is, however, a distinct
+branch of sport, to which we owe many a pleasant day on the
+South-Spanish plains, and a separate chapter is devoted to its
+description.
+
+[Illustration: Plate XLII.
+
+SPANISH WILDFOWLERS WITH _CABRESTO_ PONIES.
+
+Page 365.]
+
+One day we tried a novel method of approaching the wildfowl on the
+shores of a lake which lay at a distance of three or four miles. This
+was by means of the _cabresto_, or decoy pony--a curious experience. The
+wildest waterfowl are at the mercy of a clever fowler provided with one
+of these ponies. As there are many half-wild mares pasturing at large
+over the swamps, the ducks are accustomed to the sight of them and take
+no alarm at their proximity. As we approached the lake, its flat sandy
+margin was in places black with wildfowl, while myriads sat on the
+surface, splashing and pluming themselves in the sunshine. With each of
+the three ponies went its owner, a _patero_, or professional
+wildfowl-shooter, each taking with him one of us--almost literally--"in
+tow," for, with one hand grasping the pony's tail, the other carrying
+the gun, we followed each close behind his _patero_, who directed the
+pony towards the thickly-covered shore. We proceeded thus, crouching
+behind the pony's quarters, till we had approached within 100 yards of
+the fowl. The leading _patero_ now stopped his pony, which at once
+commenced to feed, an example followed by the rest--we six men sitting
+meanwhile on the grass. No alarm was shown by the ducks. A cord was now
+slipped over the neck of each _cabrestro_ and made fast to its off
+foreleg above the knee, bringing the heads of the ponies close to the
+ground, thus giving them the appearance of grazing, though in truth we
+were now on bare dry mud. We continued approaching thus, and the
+interval was now reduced to fifty yards; looking beneath the ponies we
+could see hundreds of ducks all playing themselves in fancied security.
+There, close at hand, sat or swam wigeon and mallards, shovelers,
+garganeys, teal and pintails, a few gadwall and several of the curious
+heavy-headed "porrones" (_Erismatura mersa_), with diving-ducks and
+grebes of many kinds. The nearer shore was massed with teal, and a few
+yards beyond a big pack of mallards were daintily pluming themselves. As
+the teal came first in line, it was to them we directed our attention:
+with alternate progression and feigned halts to "graze" we continued our
+slow advance. We were now within twenty-five yards of the teal: already
+a movement of preparation had been made by the leading gun, instantly
+imitated by the two who followed, when a tremendous scare took place
+among the wildfowl, and the whirr of wings threw the whole lake into
+confusion. A kite had swept across the birds, and all had taken to the
+refuge of the deep waters. "Paciencia," resignedly muttered our friends
+the _pateros_. We uncocked our guns and squatted on the mud, each under
+cover of his beast, thus spending an hour while the frightened fowl
+gradually swam ashore and reformed on the margin. A second time the
+moment to pull trigger had almost arrived when the tyrant again swept
+over with the same result as before. At last, however, the twice delayed
+moment arrived, and our six barrels drove together through the ranks of
+teal, leaving upwards of fifty dead or wounded on the shore, of which we
+ultimately bagged forty-four. This shot was taken against the wishes of
+our friends, who declared that had we waited an hour longer we should
+have had the birds thick enough to have killed three times that number.
+But we had other sport in view, and could not wait for this golden
+opportunity; besides, our rival the kite might have spoiled our game
+again. We had, however, seen enough to understand that one of these men
+and his sagacious auxiliary can really account for the almost fabulous
+number of ducks which they are said occasionally to obtain at a single
+shot. These men shoot for a living; hence they never fire except when
+they have made certain of a heavy shot. It is not at all unusual for
+them to manoeuvre for a whole day without discharging their ancient
+fowling-pieces. They make the slowest approach, get to the closest
+quarters possible, and never unnecessarily disturb the fowl. When they
+_do_ fire it is a bumper. In summer their occupation is varied by
+fishing and catching leeches in the swamps, which they do by flogging
+the surface of the water, when the leeches fasten upon their legs. A
+trained _cabresto_ pony, though a rough, shaggy little beast, is of
+considerable value to these men, among whom there exists a sort of
+brotherhood, and an intruder of their own class fares badly if he
+ventures into the lonely districts which they almost regard as their
+exclusive domain.[68]
+
+[Illustration: Plate XLIII.
+
+A SHOT IN THE OPEN.
+
+Page 367.]
+
+At length the time for our departure had arrived, for we intended
+spending a few days among the big game in the extensive pine-forests
+which cover the southern extremity of the Coto Donana. The pack-mules
+with the baggage being despatched by a direct route, we rode off on an
+almost summerlike morning, taking a wider course so as to get a "drive"
+of some of the wooded _corrales_ that lay towards the west. Here, in one
+of the wildest spots, Manolo placed the line of guns. The writer is
+posted on a mound of blown sand, one of the many which form the
+irregular broken country around. The cocked rifle is placed conveniently
+for instant grasp while one surveys the position and speculates on the
+likeliest spot for a stag to appear--quickly taking note of the uneven
+ground, its hillocks and hollows where it will be necessary to
+enterprise a snap-shot, and again where more deliberate aim may be
+taken. Every here and there similar mounds present an unbroken view,
+spots where the driven sand has collected around some stalwart pine,
+taking various picturesque forms and crowned with the dark green foliage
+of latest growth.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration: Plate XLIV.
+
+SALAVAR--A SKETCH IN A SPANISH _MANCHA_.
+
+Page 369.]
+
+Presently the sharp crack of a rifle breaks our reverie and gives
+startling evidence that game is afoot. A few seconds later the patter of
+galloping feet is heard on the hard sand and the expected quarry bounds
+across the glen, his antlers thrown back as he scents danger and
+redoubles his speed. Full in the shoulder strikes the express bullet,
+stopping his flight and sending him headlong to earth, where a second
+shot ends his agony with instant death. In this fortunate drive four
+stags and two boars are brought to bag. One of the latter, in a thick
+brambled _mancha_, for some time defied the dogs, which declined to face
+him at close quarters. He was a brute of unusual size, and each time
+he faced the dogs with gnashing tusks, they retired. At last a shot
+fired in the air dislodged him, and a quick rifle-shot took effect in
+his lower jaw. Again he sought refuge among the brambles, but the dogs
+now held the advantage, and inch by inch he was driven forward to a
+point where he offered an easy mark to several guns, and soon Manolo's
+long _navaja_ was performing his obsequies. Another stag of thirteen
+points (_see_ photo, p. 363), and a brace of foxes, right and left, were
+secured in a small isolated thicket just before dusk, and the last ten
+miles of our ride had thus to be managed in the dark.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+One more incident before we leave these forests. Early on a winter
+morning we had reached the remote covert of Salavar, and owing to its
+extent, and the strong wind blowing, which would prevent the shots being
+heard, it was decided to drive it in two sections. At the end of the
+first beat, which had produced three stags--two lynxes also passing the
+line unscathed--the guns and drivers were assembled preparatory to the
+second (windward) _batida_, when, from that direction, a couple of
+distant gunshots were distinctly heard. Clearly poachers were at work,
+and already the forest-guards were conjecturing (and rightly as it
+proved) the personality of the depredator--an old offender who had
+before given trouble. The man penetrated to the heart of these wild
+regions accompanied only by his son, and his mode of procedure was to
+station himself to the leeward of any likely bit of covert, and sending
+the lad round, to await the chance of the latter driving forward any
+deer which might happen to be lying in it. His two shots had been at
+hinds. Leaving the main party to surround the _mancha_, two of the
+keepers galloped off in the direction of the shots, separating so as to
+enclose the poacher and cut off his retreat. Soon one of these came
+across the tracks of naked feet on the sand, and shortly overtook the
+culprit already preparing a drive of the covert we had just beaten.
+Taken by surprise, resistance or flight were impossible; the poacher's
+gun was taken from him, and he and his son marched off prisoners to our
+main party--an ill-looking ruffian clad in deer-skins, of whom some ugly
+tales were told. Brought before our friend representing the proprietary,
+the captive showed an undaunted and even impudent demeanour, asserting
+that it was the hunger of his children that had brought him from a
+village on the Guadiana (some fifty miles away), to kill the deer,
+which, he said, belonged to him equally with any other of God's
+creatures. Such primitive principles availed but little with these
+fierce keepers, imbued with almost feudal respect for forest-game, and
+this bold adherent of "commonwealth" was deprived of his gun and ordered
+off to the coast, with a warning that he would shortly have to answer
+for his conduct before the magistrate at Almonte. As he turned to obey,
+old Bartolo, whose estimate of the terrors of Spanish law evidently
+stood low, shouted after him, with a significant tap on the stock of his
+ancient _escopeta_, "Look here, Cristobal! you have given us a deal of
+trouble; you will come here once too often!"
+
+It may occur to the reader to conjecture how the poacher could have
+utilized his deer, had he secured one, in so remote a spot. Far away on
+the distant boundary of the Coto, he had his donkey hidden in some
+thicket of lentiscus, and under cover of night would have returned for
+his spoils, and moving stage by stage to the sea-shore, would contrive
+to reach his village before daybreak. He was, however, securely caught,
+for within an hour another keeper arrived, who also had detected the
+trespasser's footprints at a point some ten miles away, and suspecting
+they were none of honest man, had followed the trail. Thus, even had
+Cristobal not been captured by us, he would still have been intercepted
+by this second adversary.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+WILDFOWLING IN THE WILDERNESS.
+
+I.--A WET WINTER: A RECORD OF DIFFICULTIES AND DISAPPOINTMENTS.
+
+
+The wildfowl-shooting of the Peninsula in favourable seasons and
+situations is probably equal to any in Europe. But much depends on the
+place, and everything on the season. There are plenty of provinces and
+miles of marsh-land where the hardest work is barely rewarded by a pair
+or two of ducks, or perhaps five couple of snipe, and where many a long
+day will be registered blank. Then, as just stated, _everything_ depends
+on the weather. For climatic conditions vary extremely as between one
+winter and another. Some Spanish winters are dry and rainless; hardly
+any moisture remaining save in certain favoured spots; and to these
+sparse green oases throng the aquatic hosts. Here, at such times, come
+the red-letter days for the fowler.
+
+But Spanish winters are not always dry; on the contrary, it frequently
+happens that the rains set in in autumn with semi-tropical fury,
+converting this drainless land into one vast swamp, and inundating the
+_marismas_ till they grow into inland seas. The difference between a wet
+and a dry winter is marvellous. We propose in this chapter to describe
+the somewhat indifferent sport of a _wet winter_, even in a good
+locality, together with its effect on the habits and distribution of
+wildfowl.
+
+The winter of 1887-8 will serve as a typical example. In November the
+rain set in; during December it descended day after day, and by the end
+of the month the swollen flood of Guadalquivir had spread itself
+laterally over its low riparian terrain to a breadth of perhaps sixty
+miles of unbroken water. Miniature breakers dashed up against the
+leeward shores; the marsh lands which border the marisma were submerged,
+and the whole delta, extending to Seville, was under water. From the
+moment we beheld that tawny expanse, it was clear that all hope of
+success in wildfowling enterprise must be abandoned. It is not so much
+that in a wet season wildfowl are less abundant (for they are there in
+thousands), as that they are scattered over so vast an area, instead of
+being concentrated at certain spots, which explains the difficulty of
+their pursuit and the impossibility of securing any large numbers.
+
+Riding along the shores of this inland sea, we observed numerous packs
+of wildfowl floating on its surface, but always at such a distance from
+the shore as to be inaccessible by the ordinary Spanish system of the
+stalking-pony. The _cabresto_ is only available when ducks are found in
+shallow water or in comparatively narrow channels where the ponies can
+be worked round them till the fowlers gradually bring their masked
+batteries to bear. But now, with the whole country submerged, it was
+impossible to concentrate the fowl, and our efforts were generally
+directed against scattered packs, nearly always on the edge of perfectly
+open water. Instead of being able, by manoeuvring at a little
+distance, gently to move forward the outside birds, to close up the
+ranks, and thus to gather together a compact body upon which to direct
+our broadside, we had now to deal with loosely-scattered parties dotted
+here and there for miles along what was practically an open shore, and
+which simply swam away from us into deeper water. Then, in this deeper
+water, the deception naturally lost great part of its efficacy; for
+though the sight of a half-wild pony grazing in shallow marsh where
+grass and water-plants rise above the surface, has no terror for the
+duck tribe, yet the case is obviously altered when the pony is directed
+into open water, devoid of all signs of vegetation, and reaching up to
+his belly! No sensible beast would ever seek such "pasturage," and
+the anomaly is quickly detected by the ducks.
+
+[Illustration: Plate XLV.
+
+WILDFOWLING WITH _CABRESTOS_. No. 1.--THE APPROACH.
+
+Page 372.]
+
+There were, however, abundance of wildfowl; some of the aggregations of
+pintails, indeed, were a memorable sight, darkening acres of water, and
+in the upper marisma we occasionally enjoyed a degree of success which
+would undoubtedly have been gratifying but for loftier anticipations.
+Riding along the marshy margins at daybreak, tempting chances at
+twenties and thirties offered themselves, but our _pateros_ would not
+hear of our disturbing the wastes for such paltry lots--"_veinte o
+treinta pares al primer tiro_" (twenty or thirty couples at the first
+shot) was their constant refrain; but sometimes the results belied their
+judgment, and more than once before night we regretted those matutinal
+scruples. On more fortunate days we did succeed in working our way into
+the midst of such assemblages of ducks as it rarely falls to the lot of
+wildfowler to see at close quarters all around him. It is necessary, as
+a general rule, to keep to leeward of wildfowl; but with the _cabrestos_
+this is of less importance, and owing to their numbers and the
+straggling area of their phalanxes, it often happened that we had
+considerable bodies of duck almost under our lee and actually appeared
+to be in the midst of them. Not even in a gunning-punt can such
+opportunities of observation of wild creatures be enjoyed; for, then,
+one is necessarily lying prone, with eyes barely raised above
+water-level; here, merely crouching behind a shaggy little pony, one
+commanded a clear and uninterrupted view.
+
+The bulk of the ducks this winter (1888) proved to be Pintails, though
+Wigeon were hardly less abundant. Wet seasons suit the tastes of the
+former species, which then throng the flooded plains in tens of
+thousands all through the winter, whereas in dry years the Pintails
+almost immediately pass on into Africa, not reappearing till February,
+on their way north. The Pintail with his very long neck, trim, slender
+build and sailing flight is a striking-looking bird--its appearance on
+the wing suggesting an intensified, or idealized, development of the
+duck type, familiar in the common mallard. We could watch them busily
+preening themselves, washing and coquetting, some tugging at the sweet
+green grasses that grew below, others daintily plucking the white
+water-buttercups floating on the surface, all within five-and-twenty
+yards, or passing and repassing close overhead, keeping up the while a
+wild, lively chatter, mingled with the musical whistle of the Wigeon. We
+have never seen elsewhere such splendid examples of the latter species
+as some of the old drakes shot here; the metallic colours shone with an
+intense lustre, and the rich dark chestnut of their heads was glossed
+with green and purple reflections.
+
+At several periods there appeared to offer chances for our four united
+barrels to realize from twenty-five to thirty head; but our friends
+would not hear of it, and when at last the signal to open fire was
+given, the occasion was often less favourable, and the net result little
+more than half those numbers. Our friends' anxiety for a big shot had
+perhaps tempted them to overdo the "herding" business; it was, however,
+a relief to be at last allowed to stand upright. The labour of crouching
+along, bent half double for an hour at a stretch, splashing through
+water over knee-deep and in clinging mud, is rather severe. There is,
+moreover, but scant room for two behind a pony, and the crowding
+intensifies the discomfort of the bent position. There is the necessity
+to avoid bringing one's heavy-nailed brogues down on one's companion's
+naked heels or toes; then again, no part of one's person must show in
+outline above or astern, and lastly there is the gun. By an axiom of
+sport, it must never point towards man or beast; to carry it pointing
+downwards would never do--the muzzle would be a foot under water, and
+upwards it would show like a pole-mast above the ponies' quarters. The
+gun, in short, for fifty-nine minutes in every hour, is simply a
+nuisance.
+
+Though the chief species of ducks against which our operations were
+directed were the above-named--Pintails and Wigeon--there were several
+other kinds, notably Shovelers--very handsome birds, the drakes, with
+their boldly contrasted plumage, glossy green heads and chest-nut
+breasts divided by a band of snow-white purity. Besides these there were
+the Mallard and Teal, and others to which we will refer presently.
+
+[Illustration: Plate XLVI.
+
+WILDFOWLING WITH _CABRESTOS_. No. 2.--THE SHOT.
+
+Page 374.]
+
+It was during flight-shooting in the early mornings that the greatest
+variety of wildfowl was observed, the numbers of Shovelers being
+especially conspicuous. One morning we particularly remember; we had
+ridden nearly all night to reach a certain favourite spot before
+daybreak. Even the _pateros_ were still asleep when, at 2 A.M., we rode
+up to their solitary _choza_ on the verge of the marsh. However, we were
+soon in our allotted positions, each on board a tiny _lancha_, or
+flat-bottomed punt, far out in the marisma. Towards the dawn a very
+great number of ducks were on the wing--Mallards, Pintails, Teal, and
+Wigeon, while from an opposite direction the Shovelers streamed overhead
+for a couple of hours. These handsome _paletones_ took my fancy, and
+drew the bulk of my cartridges; but whether they were too high, or the
+powder, in Spanish phrase, too "cold," the results were certainly not
+commensurate. In any case it is no easy matter to take fast and high
+shots when balancing oneself in a cranky punt. A valid excuse was the
+unusual amount of water. This disadvantage is felt, in wet winters, at
+every turn; here, in flighting, in the entire absence of covert in which
+to conceal our punts. Hardly even the tops of the rushes, tamarisk and
+other bog-plants protruded above the surface. Consequently the
+high-sided punts loomed far too conspicuous, even in the half-light,
+causing the fowl to "sky" or to swerve to right or left. Again by reason
+of the punts being fully afloat (instead of lying on the mud) a
+difficulty was added to the taking of quick shots, for on any sudden
+movement of its occupant, the tiny craft lurched almost to the capsizing
+point. In spite of all this, the double flashes from the adjoining
+_lancha_ were generally succeeded by one, and often by two, answering
+splashes in the dark water.
+
+Pochards and a few Tufted ducks are almost the only members of the
+diver-tribe that we have met with in the marisma during wet winters,
+though, by February, some of the Ferruginous ducks (_Fuligula nyroca_)
+are beginning to return, and probably a few White-fronted ducks
+(_Erismatura leucocephala_) will also, by then, be found on the deeper
+waters. Of the Red-crested duck (_F. rufina_), which is fairly common
+near Valencia, we have never seen a single example in the Andalucian
+marismas; nor were any Gadwalls included in the bag this season, though
+in other winters, not entirely dissimilar, we have secured several.
+
+The distribution of the Anatidae is, in fact, somewhat puzzling. Some
+species are very regular; others, without apparent cause, are just the
+reverse. The movements of Pintail, as just stated, are clearly regulated
+by the state of water in the marshes. Those of Gadwall and Garganey, on
+the other hand, bear no visible relation to these or other external
+conditions, but neither of the two last-named are ever abundant. The
+Garganey, a bird of infinite speed of wing, the first to come in autumn,
+the last to depart in spring, spends the mid-winter months in Africa;
+though one morning at dawn (January 31st) four drakes fell to a double
+shot, and during February we secured many more; but this does not occur
+every year. The Marbled duck (_Q. marmorata_), a first cousin of the
+teal, seldom arrives in time to take part in the wildfowl-shooting;
+though we have notes of an occasional straggler being recognized amidst
+the slain as early as February.
+
+Sheld-ducks of both kinds are found at all seasons in the Guadalquivir
+district, where they remain to breed in spring; the common species in
+rabbit-or disused badger-holes among the sandhills, the large Ruddy
+Sheld-duck in low cliffs or _barrancos_. A few of either species usually
+fall to our guns while flight-shooting during the winter months.
+
+[Illustration: "_ANSERES SON!_"]
+
+Next to ducks, the most important wildfowl of the marisma are the Grey
+Geese, which resort thither from November till February. Their habit is
+to spend the night on the open water and to fly up in successive parties
+about daybreak to the grassy shores, where, if unmolested, they spend
+the day feeding, preening, and washing in the shallow water. In these
+situations, we frequently fell in with them while fowling with the
+_cabrestos_. "Anseres son!"--"geese they are"--was Vasquez's verdict,
+as he slowly shut up the glass after a long and particular survey of the
+distant foreshore. The words were spoken sadly, as though soliloquizing,
+for the Grey Lag is altogether too wary and suspicious a bird to fall
+readily into the snare of the fowler. Barely indeed is it possible, by
+this stratagem,[69] to approach within the short range which alone is
+fatal--forty yards is the maximum for these ironclads, and twenty-five
+much more desirable. Except when in very small numbers--twos and threes
+together--it is barely worth while to attempt a stalk; our friends only
+undertook the operation under protest, saying it was a _compromiso_--a
+thing calculated to compromise their aucipial repute. _Anseres son!_
+there, sure enough, on the utmost verge of the plain, sits a straggling
+line with detached groups of big, blue-grey forms, some slowly moving
+about, others squatted on the ground or resting in various attitudes of
+repose. Such big packs are inaccessible; only once, that winter, did we
+seem to be really on the road to success. The bulk of the geese--some
+seventy in number--appeared to be peacefully sleeping away the mid-day
+hours, some sitting on the grass, others standing on one leg with heads
+snugly tucked away under their back feathers. We had already reached the
+critical point, and the ponies well know now the importance of
+caution--step by step, with a halt at every fourth or fifth to crop a
+mouthful of grass, they slowly advance. We had proceeded thus to within
+a shot and a half of the still silent geese, when from an intervening
+belt of rush there sprang a couple of the half-wild, black pigs of the
+wilderness. Away they scampered, jostling and fighting with each other
+in their fright, and squealing as only pigs can squeal. In an instant
+the geese were on the alert--every neck at full stretch, every eye
+seeking keenly the cause of the unwonted uproar. From the sentinel
+gander came the low, clear alarm-note--Honk! honk! The rest were still
+silent, but they knew full well the significance of those low warning
+notes. A few seconds more and, despite our utmost care, the whole
+pack rose on wing, amid deep Spanish execrations on the mothers and
+female relatives of those _malditos cochinos_.
+
+[Illustration: GREY LAG GEESE FLIGHTING--DAYBREAK.]
+
+[Illustration: Plate XLVII.
+
+GREY GEESE AND WIGEON--MIDDAY.
+
+Page 378.]
+
+The geese have particular spots along the shore to which they show a
+predilection--usually the point of some flat promontory or tongue of
+land, to which they daily resort. By placing a few decoys before dawn,
+and lying in wait at these _querencias_, several shots may be obtained
+at the "morning flight." The difficulties of wild-goose shooting are,
+however, proverbial, and these big Grey Lags are, moreover, the hardest
+and most invulnerable fowl. Yet if the bag is sometimes light, those
+mornings spent in the marisma will never be regretted, nor the sights
+and sounds heard during the lonely hours of vigil be forgotten. Within
+one hundred yards of the damp hole where we lie hidden are three or four
+separate packs of Grey Lags swimming on the silvery water, while fresh
+parties constantly keep arriving to join the assemblage, sailing with
+lowered pinions and cautious croaks towards the fatal decoy.
+
+The geese of the Spanish marismas are principally the Grey Lag (_Anser
+ferus_) and the Bean-goose (_Anser segetum_) in much less numbers. The
+latter usually flight singly or in small trips; their note is also
+different--like that of a large gull. The Lesser White-fronted Goose
+(_Anser erythropus_ of Linnaeus), appears also to occur in the marisma.
+Lord Lilford mentions having observed a single example in company with
+Grey Lags, and has skins of this small species obtained at Seville. As
+regards the other European species, there is no evidence of their winter
+range extending to Southern Spain, though it is possible that stragglers
+of both the Pink-footed and White-fronted Geese may occasionally do so.
+Of wild Swans we have only once met with a bunch of four, as elsewhere
+related, and one of our _pateros_ told us he had killed two or three
+during an exceptionally severe winter several years ago. He regarded
+them as extremely unusual, and in fact did not know what they were till
+he took them to San Lucar for sale.
+
+Ducks and geese are not the only denizens of the wilderness. The genus
+of wading birds is a natural complement, and their beauty and variety
+almost always lend an additional charm to shooting-days by marsh, mere,
+and coast; but this winter they disappointed us. The simple fact was
+that the whole of their wonted haunts were submerged, and they had
+sought their desiderata elsewhere. Whether they had passed on southward
+through the tropics or eastward towards Egyptian lagoons, or returned
+whence they had come--at any rate, in Spain they were not. During the
+days spent behind our _cabrestos_ we saw hardly any of these birds.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration: Plate XLVIII.
+
+WILDFOWLING WITH _CABRESTOS_. No. 3.--THE RESULT.
+
+Page 381.]
+
+Another loss caused by the adverse season was the absence of snipe; they
+had arrived as usual, in October and November, but during the rains of
+the following month had disappeared--and not without reason, since
+nearly the whole of their favourite haunts now lay submerged. Among the
+birds which remained may be mentioned curlews, and peewits in large
+numbers, a few golden plovers, redshanks, dunlins and Kentish
+plovers; on several occasions, chattering packs of stilts were met with,
+and on January 30th a large flock of avocets were feeding on the slobby
+mud-flats--these the _pateros_ assured us had just arrived, which
+probably was the case. Once, by night, we recognized the well-known note
+of the green-shank, and at intervals a green sandpiper would spring from
+some muddy pool. Beyond the fringe of rushes stood sedate herons; here
+and there a party of storks, and further out still, the flamingoes,
+whose rosy ranks impart a thoroughly southern character to the scene.
+
+There was, therefore, no lack of bird-life, though many of the more
+interesting species were gone. Amidst the feathered population,
+apparently unnoticing and unnoticed by all, the Marsh-Harriers
+ceaselessly wheel and drift. After watching them for hours we have never
+seen them take a bird on the wing, or pursue anything at all, unless
+wounded. Now and then a harrier would pounce fiercely upon some
+object--we could not see what--among the rushes, and remain poised on
+outstretched wings for some minutes, evidently struggling with some
+victim--perhaps a frog or wounded bird--and then quietly resume his
+hunting. The Hen-Harrier in dry seasons we frequently observe while
+snipe-shooting--now, the few seen were all on the dry plains, and not on
+the marisma.
+
+One day, towards the end of January, while endeavouring to circumvent
+the greylags, we fell in with a pack of some forty Sand-Grouse--the
+Pintailed species--_Pterocles alchata_. They were intensely wild, and at
+the end of two hours' stalking, the end of the operation seemed as far
+off as ever. One point in our favour was that the _Gangas_ had a strong
+haunt at that flat, sandy spit--perhaps it was the only ground suitable
+to their habits that remained uncovered by water. At any rate, they
+refused to leave it entirely, and though at times the pack would soar
+away up into the blue heavens till lost to sight, and we could only
+follow their course by the harsh croaking notes, yet they invariably
+returned, descending direct to earth with superb abruptnesses, headlong
+as a shower of falling stars. At length patience and perseverance
+prevailed, and a couple of raking shots produced just half a score,
+seven males and three females. Some of the former were already assuming
+the black throat of spring-time, but otherwise they were all in full
+winter-dress, the males having few, or none, of the large pale yellow
+spots that, later on, adorn their backs and scapulars, and both sexes
+being paler and less vivid in colouring than at the vernal season.
+
+The carriage of these birds when on the ground is very game-like and
+sprightly; they sit half-upright, like a pigeon, and on our final
+(successful) approach we observed several of them lying down on their
+sides nestling in the warm sand. Their flight resembles that of golden
+plover, but is bolder, and the narrow black bordering to the under-wing
+is conspicuous when passing near. At times, when high in air, they might
+be mistaken for teal. We found them excellent eating; their crops
+contained small seeds and shoots of the samphire and other bog-plants;
+their flesh is dark brown throughout (that of _Syrrhaptes paradoxus_ is
+half white, like a blackcock), and was as tender and well-flavoured as
+that of a grouse. The Spanish name of "_ganga_," signifying a bargain,
+goes to corroborate this opinion.
+
+At length our sojourn amidst these desolate scenes came to its close.
+The pack-mules set out, literally, by the way of the wilderness, while
+we took a longer route by the shore for a final attempt on the ducks,
+and had a pretty _finale_ to our sport. A pack of forty mallards were
+descried, and as the _cabrestos_ drew up to the deadly range, there
+caught the writer's eye what might have been a bed of stones amongst
+some rushes, but which were in fact a fine spring of teal huddled
+together as close as they could sit. Towards these, when the signal to
+open fire was given, one gun directed his cartridges, while the other
+remained faithful to the _patos reales_. The result, seven mallards and
+eleven teal, was a satisfactory climax to a pleasant campaign under
+adverse conditions. For if heavy shots were scarce, the scenes and
+sounds we have feebly endeavoured to describe--the clouds of ducks
+and geese, the soaring flight of the harriers, or graceful forms of a
+passing trip of pintails, the stately flamingoes, or the bark of an
+eagle overhead--all these are essentially exotic--they breathe the
+spirit of wild Spain, and are full of fascination to a naturalist.
+
+[Illustration: Plate XLIX.
+
+"THE FAREWELL SHOT."
+
+Page 382.]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+WILDFOWLING IN THE WILDERNESS.
+
+II.--A DRY SEASON (FLIGHT-SHOOTING).
+
+
+For days the report had reached us of the myriads of aquatic birds that
+had settled in the marisma. The keepers at the distant Retuerta had
+passed the word along to those nearer the boundary, and from these the
+news was transmitted by boatmen to our factotum at San Lucar. Every day
+the exhortation to come became more and more urgent--"come at once, or
+in a few days the geese will have devoured every blade of aquatic weed,
+every green thing that remains, and will perforce be obliged to shift to
+other quarters." But come we could not. The 29th November was the day
+previously fixed for opening the campaign, and to cross the Guadalquivir
+before that date was not possible. Some of our party were coming out by
+P. and O. to Gibraltar, others by the quicker route of the _Sud_
+express. With that malignant perversity of fate that ever seems to
+snatch from us the realization of one's ideal, we had, this year, fixed
+the day a week too late.
+
+Mid-November was already past; autumn had given place to winter, yet not
+a drop of rain had fallen. Since the scorching days of summer the
+fountains of heaven had been stayed, and now the winter wildfowl from
+the north were pouring in only to find the marisma as hard and arid as
+the deserts of Arabia Petraea. They found not what they sought--instinct
+was at fault. True to their appointed season came the dark clouds of
+pintail, teal, and wigeon, the long skeins of grey geese; but where in
+other years they had revelled in shallows rich in aquatic vegetation,
+now the travellers find in their stead a calcined plain devoid of all
+that is attractive to the tastes of their tribe. For the parched-up
+soil, whose life-blood has been drained by the heats of the summer
+solstice, whose plant-life is burnt up, remains panting all the autumn
+through for the precious moisture that comes not. The carcases of cattle
+and horses that have died of thirst and lack of pasturage strew the
+plains; the winter-sown wheat is dead ere germination is complete.
+
+In such years of drought many of the newly-arrived wildfowl--especially
+pintails--pass on southwards (into Africa) not to return till February;
+but numbers crowd into the few places where the precious
+element--water--still exists. Such a spot is the Retuerta; and along its
+ten-mile length of tasselled sedge and 30-foot bamboo are concentrated
+such hosts of wildfowl as seldom entrance the sportsman's eye. In this
+favoured nook in distant Andalucia let us now live again a few of those
+eventful days.
+
+At length our party of ten guns are assembled in the shooting-box. Never
+before, at this season, have we ridden those thirty miles across so
+thirsty a land. Vasquez and his _confreres_ received us
+reproachfully--Why have we not come sooner? But are all the geese gone?
+_Hay, hay anseres, pero no la decima parte de que habia_--"there are
+some geese," he replies, "but not the tenth part of what there were."
+Then a smile came over his Red-Indian countenance, as he added--_pero
+todavia hay para divertirse_--"there are yet enough for sport." When
+Vasquez reckons there are enough for sport we know that, allowing for
+Andalucian exaggeration, there will be hot barrels before the day is
+done. What he calls, in his expressive language, a _salpicon_--a
+sprinkling, may mean several acres in a flock; a _punado_, or handful, a
+thick mass of several thousand! When he talks of a _tiro regular_--an
+_ordinary_ shot, we know he means about thirty couples of mallards with
+one barrel. For Vasquez has striven for a living, as his fathers did
+before him, with the ducks of these wilds; and when he _did_ let off his
+ponderous blunderbuss it was at very close quarters, and meant
+execution. Quantity was his desideratum, for he had to make a large bag
+for little money, depending on others to realize his spoils in the
+distant market, and, as usual, much of the hard-earned coin stayed in
+the hands of middlemen. Thus Vasquez, with other marsh-men, was tempted
+by our offer of a fixed wage, and has for years been keeper on the
+marisma, where his reed-thatched _choza_ is barely visible amidst waving
+sedges and bulrushes hard by the most favoured haunts of his aquatic
+charges. Vasquez cannot tell you who is Prime Minister at Madrid, and
+cares not whether England may wish to surrender Gibraltar to Spain; but
+he _can_ tell you whither that pack of duck, like a small cloud on the
+horizon, is hurrying to alight; he can point out to you the birds fresh
+come from the north, as distinguished from earlier arrivals, as he can
+also tell you when ducks, which, to the uninitiated, appear quite happy
+and content, are packing up, and will be gone with the morning's light.
+He will take you where the snipe are in hundreds when you have searched
+their favourite haunts in vain; and will place you at dusk, if you have
+faith in him and wait till sunset, where the greylags will pass within
+ten yards. So Vasquez is a useful man, though he knows nothing of the
+great world outside of the Retuerta. We felt, nevertheless, that we were
+a week too late, and had perhaps lost the best chance of a century.
+
+The plan of campaign was to line the northern end of the marsh for some
+five or six miles, placing a gun in each one of certain selected spots.
+For this purpose, large casks are sunk at intervals, some well hidden
+among rushes, others in open pools; but in these latter cases the tubs
+were cunningly concealed by cut tamarisks and other water-plants.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+To place the guns in their respective tubs, extending over six miles of
+bog, and the nearest tub almost the same distance from our quarters, is
+a lengthy operation, necessitating a very early start. Long before dawn
+we were in the saddle. Dark and rough at first was the ride just
+preceding that impressive change--the lifting of night's mantle from
+the earth. Gradually grew these first rays, and soon the whole east was
+aglow, gleaming across parched plains, as the glorious morn awakened. To
+the enticing oasis of the Retuerta pushed forward the long cavalcade,
+but the sun was high ere all the strategical points could be
+simultaneously occupied. For it was arranged that each gunner should
+advance at a given signal to his post, and that no shot should be fired
+till all were in position. Of the difficulties and dangers in reaching
+those points, through marsh and quaking bog, we will not stop to speak;
+at length all were in place, and ducks already streamed overhead within
+half gunshot while we awaited the signal to open. Then from the distant
+land a shot resounded, and simultaneously, all along our line, rang out
+a merry fusillade; here comes my first chance, a pack of wigeon,
+straight for the tub. A bright-winged drake paid first tribute, and two
+more from "the brown" fall to the left. As fast as cartridges can be
+slipped into the breech they are required, and two guns are kept going
+continuously--now at a swinging flight of teal or swift garganey,[70]
+then at the more stately pintails, next at a single shoveler-drake on
+his straight and hurried course. Now the ten-bore is useful for a string
+of mallards which are already seeking safer altitudes, and for a couple
+of curlews, for once at fault. But we need not recapitulate, even were
+it possible to remember, the rapid sequence of shots, which for an hour
+were almost continuous. Shots of every kind there offered--incoming,
+outgoing, to right and left, direct or oblique, and at every height and
+angle, acute, obtuse, and perpendicular. Now a flight of wigeon,
+skimming low on the water-level, suddenly fling themselves in one's
+face, all unseen till far too near; then from behind, with a rush as of
+a whirlwind, a trip of swift-winged teal or swifter garganeys almost
+take one's hat off, then "sky" like rockets, on seeing the
+danger--difficult to stop are these! At intervals, there is a variation,
+when, during the earlier part of the action, the files of grey geese are
+seen and heard as they sail along, looming so huge among the smaller
+fowl. They are not too high as, outward-bound, they cross our posts; but
+let them get _well_ over-head, as near as ever they will come, ere you
+open fire, or no mighty splash in the water behind will gratify your
+ear. The bulk of the shooting, however, is at files of duck speeding
+fast and straight in bee-lines overhead: high as a rule, mostly _very_
+high, the sort of shot that, once learnt, can be generally pulled
+off--and satisfactory shots they are, requiring an infinite degree of
+_faith_ and forward allowance.
+
+At the end of an hour the file-firing slackened, but still for another
+hour it continued fairly fast. The larger ducks and the geese had
+betaken themselves to the sea, or to the dried marisma respectively; but
+great numbers of wigeon and the smaller ducks still sought
+resting-places up and down the long Retuerta. Of the geese but few
+comparatively had fallen, though thousands were seen in air. Hardly had
+the firing commenced than these betook themselves to the dry marisma
+where they made shift to feed on the roots of the _castanuela_
+(spear-grass). This circumstance, however, was foreseen, and troubled us
+little; it is the geese _coming in_ that offer sport, not the geese
+going out, and we well knew that before night they would be needing a
+cool draught at the pools of Retuerta.
+
+At the end of two hours, the writer left his battery to collect his
+spoils; a goodly pile of ducks, besides three geese and two flamingoes,
+though perhaps not in due proportion to the heap of emptied cartridges.
+About a quarter-mile away lay the shore, to which, during the mid-day
+interlude, I made my way through water, mud, and matted tamarisk. The
+nearer strand, where cattle had cropped the rush, was alive with snipe,
+while amidst the heavier covert beyond, numbers of teal had sought
+asylum. With these, and passing ducks, there was plenty of employment,
+and at the end of an hour, when it was necessary to flounder back to the
+battery, I had exhausted my cartridges and formed sundry piles of
+slain--in all nineteen ducks, two geese (right and left) and over twenty
+snipe, besides a bittern and a few "various."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+The sun was now lowering, and the return of the geese might be looked
+for. I had started none too soon on the return "plodge," for with the
+heavy walking and yet heavier burden, I had hardly ensconced myself in
+my battery ere the welcome konk! konk! was audible, and some twenty
+greylags came gliding in. Straight for the sunken tub they held their
+course, and not till almost overhead did they descry the lurking gun.
+Then with redoubled flaps they swerved off, changing the downward
+gliding flight for an upward movement; but, though for a moment they
+hung in air, yet, somehow, it took both barrels ere the leader
+collapsed. Shot after shot at what appeared a fatal range failed to stop
+them _clean_, and I decided to let the next come in even nearer. This
+time only three came drifting down. They passed within shot, but I
+refrained; wheeled round the pool, and headed straight in; there was no
+mistake this time--the geese were not twenty yards off, and two of the
+three fell stone-dead. I breathed more freely now; and let the geese
+come in to a range that for any other fowl would be _too near_, holding
+even then well forward, and sundry heavy thuds on the darkening waters
+attested the success of these waiting tactics, and registered the death
+of another greylag or bean-goose. These latter came in singly, or in
+twos and threes, and are distinguishable by their harsher note and
+rather smaller size; the greylags average eight pounds, some old ganders
+turning the scale at ten. Every minute it became more difficult to see;
+night was closing in apace, but with it came more and more geese. The
+rattle of gunshots and rustling of strong pinions was incessant--hardly
+had one gone down than another flight swept in. At last the geese came
+silently; the call-note which during daylight announced their approach
+was now no longer uttered, and they drifted so fast on to the water that
+one only became aware of their arrival by the heavy ploughing splash as
+they alighted. Presently only those that came low against the dying
+after-glow in the west could be seen at all, and after a shot one had to
+listen for the splash that bespoke a kill. Gunshots now became fewer, a
+mere dropping fire, and in a few minutes more even this shooting at
+ghosts became no longer possible. Then came the splashing of horses, and
+I knew that Caraballo was coming to look for me, and a good line he took
+in the dark and featureless morass.
+
+[Illustration: GREYLAGS--DAYBREAK.]
+
+Half an hour later we were beginning to assemble at the bonfire of
+blazing samphire-bushes which had been lighted as a beacon to gather
+around. The day ended with a slight _contretemps_: one of our party with
+his servant was missing. No answer could be obtained to our signals: nor
+on our arrival at the lodge were the lost ones there. Though there could
+be no danger, yet it would be most unpleasant for our friend to pass the
+night in the wilds without food or shelter. At ten o'clock keepers were
+despatched to scour the country, but it was four hours later ere Manuel
+(at 2 A.M.) returned with the luckless wanderers in charge. They had
+mistaken our beacon, and had steered for what proved to be a
+charcoal-burning miles away.
+
+When the tale of slain had been told off, and Vasquez brought in the
+totals as 81 geese and over 300 ducks (besides sundries) for the day, we
+were inclined to forget those unresponsive greylags, and to imagine
+that, for flight-shooting, with 12-bores, at passing fowl, such results
+were not to be obtained every day, nor in every land.[71]
+
+Three other field-days followed with the wildfowl, besides two
+interludes with small-game, and a two-days snipe-shoot along the remote
+Rocina, which produced 353 snipe,[72] a few duck, teal, bitterns, and
+sundries: and, when these happy days were over, the total score stood:--
+
+ 713 ducks.
+ 247 wild geese.
+ 402 snipe.
+ 15 woodcock.
+ 161 partridge.
+ 8 quail.
+ 36 rabbits.
+ 7 hares.
+ 9 bitterns.
+ 44 sundries.
+
+Among "sundries" were included common and ruddy sheldrakes, gadwall and
+garganey, marbled ducks (a few), common and white-eyed pochards
+(several), many coots, an egret, stilts, and a pair of oyster-catchers.
+
+
+AN ARCTIC WINTER IN SOUTHERN SPAIN.
+
+Never in our experience of well-nigh a quarter of a century had such
+extremes of cold been known in this sunny land as those of December,
+1890. Nor will the destruction wrought by that phenomenal winter be
+remedied for many a long year, as brown and blasted oliveyards, and
+thousands of acres of orange-groves, almost every tree cut back to the
+bole and grafted as a last resource, bear testimony.
+
+Here, in a sporting sense, is the report of that winter, and its effects
+on fowl and fowling. _December 8th_, 1890.--Not a drop of rain fell this
+year till the 2nd inst., and the conditions for sport appeared as
+favourable as those of last year (already described above). Cold as
+Siberia was our ride to Vasquez's _choza_ (November 28), in the teeth of
+the bitter east wind which swept across the dry marisma, and cut into
+our very marrow.
+
+[Illustration: Plate L.
+
+REDSHANKS.
+
+Page 393.]
+
+_Valiente helada va caer este noche!_ say the keepers, and verily a
+terrible frost _did_ fall that night: for when Caraballo awakened us at
+six in the morning, the poor fellow's teeth chattered, his limbs shook,
+and he declared that never before had _Dios_ made so cold a morning.
+
+My luck favoured me for once, and by lot, No. 5 was placed by the deeps
+of "El Jondon," flanked by miles of bamboo and cane-brakes of tropical
+dimensions. The oozes were covered with ice, at first so thick as almost
+to bear the horses; but as the water deepened, the ice broke and cut
+their fetlocks; so we had to seek our posts on foot, dry shot for the
+first time on record. It fell to me to fire the signal-shot, so I took
+an opportunity of sending to speedy end just nine teal with the two
+barrels. I had never before held the luckiest number; to-day I was in
+the _flor_ and the _nata_ of the fray; it will give some idea of the
+character of the sport this day that, at times, it was desirable to
+decline _all_ offers from the duck-tribe, and to reserve one's
+attention, and cartridges, exclusively for the geese.
+
+The solid ice around my battery lent a novel feature to experiences of
+wild sport in Spain. The ducks, even heavy mallard and pintail,
+rebounded from the ice-bound surface; and a goose, falling obliquely,
+also slid for twenty yards before remaining still. No ducks broke the
+frozen coverlet; but geese came crashing down through the ice, each
+making itself a captive in its own chasm. I was soon surrounded by these
+ice-bound prisoners, bringing down, during the day, over thirty
+greylags, besides some eighty ducks. Many of these, however, fell in the
+tall canes and reed-brakes behind, and as we shot till well after dark,
+it was impossible to gather all--even of the dead. The whole bag, which,
+had the shooting been uniform, should have been much greater, amounted
+to 363 ducks and 72 geese, besides snipe and 39 "various."
+
+A note on the subsequent movements of the wildfowl may be an appropriate
+complement to this chapter. During the severe weather of December, most
+of the ducks disappeared. At the New Year comparatively few remained,
+and a second shoot resulted, as regards wildfowl, in failure. This,
+however, did not greatly disturb us--other game demanded attention, and
+we knew our web-footed friends had only bid us _au revoir_. "They will
+return at the end of February," asserted Vasquez; and return they did,
+to find the sunken tubs at El Jondon and along the cane-brakes of
+Quebrantiero again "occupied in force"--once more along the line rang
+out a fusillade.
+
+The transit of the aquatic birds to and from Africa often presents
+remarkable spectacles. During several days at this season
+(February--March), while cruising in the Straits, the sea has been
+sprinkled in every direction--both Atlantic and Mediterranean--with
+bands of duck coming off from the African shore and skimming low on the
+waves on a northerly or north-westerly course. They do not proceed
+direct to the Far North, but linger for some days on the Spanish side.
+Here, early in March, their numbers almost equalled those of November;
+that is of ducks, for the geese had almost entirely withdrawn. On March
+5th clouds of wigeon gyrated at vast altitudes--mere specks in the upper
+air, while others assembled, massed together in hordes on the water,
+_echando corros para irse_--arranging travelling parties, as Vasquez
+puts it: sure signs both, of the coming change. By March 10th fully
+four-fifths had disappeared; while on the 15th scarcely a duck of all
+their thousands remained, except of those species which habitually nest
+in Spain--_e.g._, mallards, sheld-ducks, &c., or which come there in
+spring expressly for that purpose, such as the white-eyed pochards,
+marbled and white-fronted ducks, and the like.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+THE STANCHION-GUN IN SPAIN.
+
+
+During wet winters in Spain, when marismas and submerged marshes form
+miniature seas, the customary methods of wildfowling are no longer of
+any avail. Opportunities of employing the _cabresto_ are few and far
+between: while flight-shooting on an area indefinitely extended is
+profitless and uncertain to the last degree. But the marismas, with
+their myriads of winter wildfowl, appeared to offer, during such
+seasons, an exceptional--indeed an ideal field for the use of the
+gunning-punt, and stanchion-gun.
+
+During the wet winter of 1887-8, when we were constrained helplessly to
+contemplate floating flotillas, all, in effect, inaccessible to our
+guns--these tantalizing spectacles urged us to seek "some new thing." A
+gunning-punt with its artillery appeared to be the one thing needed, and
+with it, we felt confident that from fifty to a hundred duck might often
+be secured at a shot. Accordingly, in the autumn of that year (1888), we
+sent out from England boat, gun, and gear--in short, the complete
+equipment for "the wildfowler afloat."
+
+The little craft duly reached the Guadalquivir in September; but here an
+unexpected difficulty arose. The Spanish custom-house took alarm. True,
+the little vessel was an entire novelty and an innovation; even in the
+Millwall Docks she had created some surprise, and here, she was
+incomprehensible. No such vessel had ever before floated on Spanish
+waters, and the official mind took time to consider. That oracle, after
+several weeks of cogitation, ordered the removal of the tiny craft from
+the obscure port of Bonanza to the full light of the custom-house at
+Seville. Here, after many more weeks of delay, it was solemnly declared
+that that white-painted six-foot barrel was "an arm of war"; that "the
+combination of boat and gun savoured of the mechanism of war"; and,
+lastly, that "the boat could not be permitted to pass the Customs until
+it had been _registered at the Admiralty_ as a ship of war," thus
+forming an integral part of the Imperial navy of Spain.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+We were informed, in reply to a respectful protest, that a high official
+of the Admiralty at Madrid--the Deputy Chief Constructor, we think, was
+his title--would "shortly" be visiting the arsenal at San Fernando,
+where a new war-ship was nearly ready for launching, and that he would
+then take the opportunity of inspecting our impounded gunboat at
+Seville.
+
+The measurements of this "British Armada" were: length over all, 22
+feet, breadth of beam, 3 feet 6 inches, by 9 inches depth of hold; her
+armament a gun of eighty pounds weight, throwing sixteen ounces of shot.
+Not a very formidable vessel, yet a hostile fleet off Malaga would
+hardly have aroused more official fuss.
+
+Six or seven months elapsed before these difficulties were smoothed
+away, as difficulties in Spain, or elsewhere, do dissolve when prudently
+and properly treated; but the wildfowling season was over, the ducks had
+disappeared, ere the "Boadicea" was released from official durance and
+allowed to proceed to the scene of action.
+
+The first obstacle was now surmounted, but a second, and more
+insuperable difficulty arose, one which forms the real "pith" of the
+present chapter. From the first our local wildfowlers reported badly of
+the new craft; her trial cruises were not satisfactory, for, while the
+_pateros_ experienced no difficulty in approaching the less wary birds,
+such as flamingoes, herons, and the like, yet ducks of no sort could be
+outmanoeuvred; at any rate not on the open waters. On the return of
+the ducks in autumn following, the fowlers still reported that they
+found the large packs wholly inaccessible, nor could they secure more
+than a paltry half-dozen or so at a shot.
+
+These reports, however, did not disturb us greatly; we attributed the
+failure of the _pateros_ to lack of experience and technical knowledge
+in handling the "Boadicea"; for, despite their skill in fowling, the art
+of working a big gun afloat was one of which they could know nothing. It
+was, therefore, with unabated confidence that the writer embarked on
+board the trim, light craft, and shoved off on his first Spanish
+punt-gunning campaign.
+
+An exhilarating prospect lay before us; nowhere in British seas could
+such aggregations of wildfowl be seen, nor so favourable a spot be
+found: there was no tide or current to fight against, no deeps where one
+loses bottom, no hidden shoals nor shifting sand-banks to bar one's
+course; and, as too often happens in our tidal waters at home, to snatch
+success from one's grasp in the very moment of its realization.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+No; here we had smooth shallow water, uniform in depth, practically
+stagnant, and with a firm level bed of mud. And everywhere on its
+surface, and in the clear atmosphere above, floated or flew those wild
+and graceful forms so dear to a fowler's eye--the duck-tribe in endless
+variety. Half a mile away, the opposite shores of the sound, the Lucio
+de los Caballeros, were dark with multitudes of duck: fresh files kept
+streaming in to alight among their fellows, and at intervals the roar of
+wings, as some bird of prey put their battalions in motion, resounded
+like the rumble of thunder. Close overhead hovered graceful Little Gulls
+(_Larus minutus_), adults whose dark under-wing contrasted with the
+snowy breast, others in the marbled plumage of immaturity. As the punt
+shot forward, hidden amidst islanded clumps of rush and sedge, we
+passed, almost within arm's-length, the weird-looking grebes and
+singular long-legged stilts in every posture of repose and
+security--more rarely in those of suspicion. Rather farther away waded
+half a dozen spoonbills, revolving on their axis at each forward step in
+their peculiar fashion; a purple heron or two, and sedate storks seeking
+a feast of frogs. A pack of avocets swept by in chattering flight: ruffs
+and redshanks, green sandpipers, and others of that class, with whole
+troops of plovers, splashed and preened in the shallows. All these we
+passed silently by. Even a "bunch" of the beautiful garganey teal would
+not tempt us this morning, for ambition soared high.
+
+Gradually we stole round the flank of the ducks--a long way off, for it
+was necessary to save the wind and get to leeward. In this we succeeded,
+and there now only remained between us and the black streak that
+represented thousands of keen eyes, some 300 yards of open water: surely
+no very formidable obstacle with a well-handled craft. So we thought,
+and so a fair experience of ducks and their ways at home justified us in
+thinking. Alas! for misplaced confidence: hardly had our bows shot clear
+of the last sheltering fringe of rush than the nearer birds began to
+rise, and spread the alarm through the deep ranks beyond. Quickly the
+danger-signal was communicated to the furthest outposts: the roar of
+wings increased, and in a few seconds the whole mass lifted off the
+water as one might lift a carpet by the corner--not a living thing
+remained afloat, while the heavens grew dark with quivering pinions and
+gyrating clouds, and resonant with a babel of bird-music.
+
+Thus ended the first attempt in conspicuous failure; and a second,
+third, and fourth shared a like fate: we were never within measurable
+distance of succeeding, and began to realize that what our native
+fowlers had reported was only too near the truth. It is fair to add that
+Vasquez's handling of the punt, after a few preliminary trials, left
+little to be desired; his aptitude for the new work was surprising. He
+held a capital course, steered accurately to signal, and got a "way" on
+the boat that would have satisfied Hawker.
+
+The very numbers of the ducks proved, to some extent, a safeguard; the
+smaller packs could occasionally be outmanoeuvred under cover of some
+reed-bed--but this only with thirties, forties, or fifties; the area
+covered by the larger bodies outflanked even the most extensive
+_juncales_. On the open water we have never yet succeeded (though we
+have tried a hundred times) to approach these main armies of duck, and
+believe now that it cannot be done. Why this should be so is another
+question, and a curious one. The nature of the duck-tribe is the same in
+Spain as in England: wherever they are found they are among the wildest
+and most wary of birds. Here, however, we had them in numbers surpassing
+anything we have seen on British waters, and frequenting, too, a region
+which seemed pre-eminently adapted for the use of punt and big gun. Yet
+we found them, on the desolate Spanish marismas, many-fold more
+inaccessible to a punt than on the harassed and heavily-shot harbours of
+England. The only reason we can suggest is that, these waters never
+being traversed by boats of any kind, the fowl are inclined to avoid a
+gunning-punt as readily as they do a human being.[73]
+
+The impossibility of obtaining a good shot by fair means being
+demonstrated, as a final resource we laid up the punt among the sedges,
+at a point where the fowl were wont to congregate. Here, at the end of
+two hours, we had about a thousand birds before the gun: wigeon,
+shovelers, and a few garganey, all mixed, with about a score of pintails
+and three or four gadwall; but, whether purposely or by accident, they
+kept at very long range from our sedgy shelter, and when at last, owing
+to a leaky seam and evening coming on, we were obliged to risk a long
+shot, only some six or eight duck were secured.
+
+[Illustration: Plate LI.
+
+"A HUNDRED AT A SHOT--NOW OR NEVER."
+
+Page 400.]
+
+[Illustration: "THE BITER AND THE BIT."]
+
+To complete this sketch of Spanish punt-gunning, we will briefly narrate
+the incidents of two other days' sport, as follows:--_February 28th._
+Started at daybreak, taking both the punt and a _cabresto_ pony. The
+first shot was at eleven teal, of which eight fell to the two barrels
+(12-bore); the second shot realized seven more teal and a marsh-harrier.
+The latter capture afforded rather a curious incident: six teal lay
+dead, the seventh, being a lively cripple (which could fly some
+distance), I sent Vergara after him in the punt, while we proceeded
+along-shore with the pony. A large hawk, however, had at once "spotted"
+the cripple, and an exciting chase ensued--the hawk making stoop after
+stoop, the teal as often escaping by diving. But the dives grew shorter
+and shorter, and at last we observed that the bird of prey had
+prevailed, for he remained suspended betwixt wind and water and was
+evidently making good his hold. Then with heavy flight he bore his
+burden straight towards where we crouched, watching, behind the pony,
+and settled on the shore. Him we then approached in the customary way,
+and as the fierce-looking _aguilucho_ stood on his victim, crushing out
+what remained of life, a charge of No. 4 secured both the _biter_ and
+the _bit_.
+
+Harriers are so numerous in the open marisma that four or five may often
+be seen at once, slowly drifting about over the waste, and marvellous is
+the speed with which they detect a disabled fowl. With a lively cripple,
+it is often a race between the human and the feathered raptor for rights
+of possession, and in flight-shooting the wounded are carried off under
+one's very eyes.
+
+After another _cabresto_-shot, which added ten wigeon to the bag, we
+reached the broad Arroyo de la Madre, which was "paved" with wildfowl in
+numbers that we cannot estimate. Mere numerals convey nothing--unless it
+be a suspicion of exaggeration--and any other attempt would only involve
+the use of inadmissible superlatives. Suffice to say that for leagues
+that broad water was a living carpet of birds. We now entrusted our
+fortunes to the "Boadicea" and her big gun. The boat lay near the
+junction of a creek with the main channel; the nearer water was dotted
+with teal, garganey, and wigeon; a little further off, the white livery
+of the shovelers was conspicuous, and beyond again, with the glasses, we
+could distinguish, among acres of wigeon, a sprinkling of pintails,
+gadwall, and a few white-eyed pochard and mallard. On the slob-land in
+front, fed nine spoonbills; a small herd of flamingoes on the left, and
+near them a grey line of geese, whose sonorous clamour was
+distinguishable above the medley of bird-notes. Ducks, however, of all
+kinds are silent enough by day.
+
+Once more the punt proved a failure. No sooner had she emerged from the
+cover of the _armajos_ (samphire), than the nearer teal and wigeon began
+swimming out, scattering away to right and left in lines all radiating
+from the focus of alarm. Ere anything like fair range was reached, not
+a single solid point presented itself to our aim. Opportunities there
+were to kill, say, a dozen or more, but these paltry chances were
+declined without second thought. In the result, some two or three hours'
+careful work--"flattened" on our chests all the time--were not rewarded
+by a single shot from the big gun.
+
+Towards evening we observed flights of duck--chiefly wigeon--pouring in
+constant streams towards some low mud-islets which afforded cover for
+approach. Behind these we lay for an hour, awaiting the gloaming, but
+the short southern twilight proved a serious obstacle. In the few
+minutes occupied in "shoving out" from our shelter towards the floating
+phalanxes in front (we had awaited the last possible moment) the light
+had disappeared, and it became impossible to distinguish objects _on the
+water_, though those in _air_ were yet clear enough. There were, we
+knew, hundreds of ducks before the gun; but the shot--like nine-tenths
+of those fired at haphazard--was a failure. Fifteen wigeon and two
+pintails lay dead; the cripples, if any, it was impossible to recover in
+the gloom; and we sadly started to "pole" the long leagues homewards,
+reflecting on the singular uncertainty of sports mundane.
+
+This day thus realized 42 ducks--17 to the punt and 25 to the
+_cabresto_: though, had we followed the latter system alone, the total
+would have been much heavier, while every available chance was given to
+the punt-gun, which never, _until after dark_, produced a feather.
+
+As a contrast we will briefly outline the results of our next day's
+shooting, employing the trained pony alone. The artillery used was a
+single 4-bore and a double 12: six shots were fired, and the net result
+was 82 duck, besides minor spoils. The day was perhaps more favourable,
+since, March having now commenced, the fowl were congregating into those
+closely-packed _corros_, or hordes, which mark the preliminary stage to
+departure. Thus, one broadside to-day realized 32 wigeon, and another
+should have done better, but for a "hang-fire." Still there was nothing
+exceptional about the day's results. We have often much exceeded the
+total named, but select this particular day merely because it followed
+in immediate sequence to that last described.[74]
+
+Since writing the above, the experience of two more winters has served
+to confirm its correctness. From a dozen or fifteen up to twenty ducks
+may occasionally be secured at a shot, but the huge bodies of wildfowl
+on open water remain actually inaccessible, and the visions of heavy
+shots--80 or 100--of which we had dreamed, no longer disturb our
+midnight slumbers.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration: Plate LII.
+
+LA MARISMILLA--A SHOOTING MORNING.
+
+Page 405.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+DEER-DRIVING IN THE PINE FORESTS.
+
+MY FIRST STAG.
+
+
+By a rush-girt glade in the heart of the _pinales_, or pine-region,
+stands the lonely shooting-lodge of La Marismilla. The sombre forests
+which surround it are a chief stronghold of the Spanish red deer, which
+find shelter in the abundant underwood and rich pasturage in the grassy
+dells. The wild pig prefers the more isolated thickets which lie towards
+the outskirts of the forest.
+
+The system generally adopted for shooting the forest-deer is "driving."
+The sylvan geography of these great areas of pines, devoid to a stranger
+of landmark, point, or path, is intimately known to the foresters, who
+mentally map out the whole into sections for the purpose of the
+_batida_, or drive. The exact boundaries of each section vary, of
+course, from day to day in accordance with the wind; for the red deer is
+gifted with a fine sense of smell, and instantly detects the human
+presence when "betwixt the wind and his nobility." Perhaps the readiest
+means of conveying an idea of this sport of forest-driving will be to
+relate the vicissitudes that befell the writer before succeeding in
+bagging his first stag.
+
+My first _puesto_, or post, was in the face of a sand-ridge clad with
+tall pines, and there were, I think, three guns on my right, four on the
+left. All these, even my nearest neighbours (200 yards away), were of
+course invisible amidst the broken ground and masses of brushwood which
+intervened; and their positions were only approximately indicated by
+sundry long lines traced in the sandy soil by the gun-stock of the old
+forester, Juan Espinal, before leaving me at my post. These lines served
+to indicate both the positions of the adjoining guns, and also the
+limits _within which_ a shot might not be fired. It is obviously a
+paramount necessity in this class of shooting never to shoot
+_forward_--_i.e._, into the beat; the game must be allowed to pass right
+through and well clear of the line before a shot can be thought of: a
+circumstance which adds vastly to the difficulty of placing one's
+bullets on the right spot.
+
+The first thing when one is left alone in the solitude of the forest is
+to survey carefully one's field of action, to consider all possible
+contingencies, and prepare accordingly; the most essential point being
+so to place oneself as to see without being seen.[75] My first
+impression, in this case, was one of wonder as to where I could possibly
+place a bullet at all. My post, as already mentioned, was in the face of
+a ridge, or rather in a hillock forming part of the ridge, and having a
+deep pass on either hand. Thus the receding ground sloped away so as to
+disappear from sight just at the entrances of the passes, forty or fifty
+yards away. In short, the possible lines of fire intersected the
+probable course of the deer, if any came, at exactly the point at which
+I should lose sight of them altogether. It was unsafe to move my
+position backwards, and in front I could find no convenient cover; so
+returning to my allotted post, I bethought myself to record my fears,
+and plot out the situation in my pocket-book. Then I settled down in the
+small redoubt of cut bushes I had put together, and waited. The solitude
+of the forest was delicious, and the silence only broken by the gentle
+fluttering of some small birds in the pines overhead. Continually there
+fell upon and around me small objects from above--it was a party of
+hawfinches pelting me with scales of pine-cones, broken off in their
+search for seeds. These and the crossbills are shy and wild, and, except
+on such occasions when unaware of one's presence, seldom allow of
+approach. For half an hour I watched their active movements, the
+tree-creepers and fire-crests, and the antics of a small animal, I think
+a genet, that was performing fantastic feats on a sunny knoll in front:
+meanwhile the distant shouts of the beaters were becoming more distinct,
+and at last I thought I could recognize the excited cry of _Ya va! ya
+va!_--there he goes! The genet vanished down a burrow, the birds ceased
+to pelt me, and a few moments later, to my excited eyes, the whole green
+expanse of juniper and heath-scrub before me appeared alive with great
+tawny beasts, all bounding forward directly towards my position. As the
+deer approached the hillocks I observed that a specially fine stag, with
+two smaller ones and some hinds, would pass on my right, while three
+more stags were making for the pass on the left. I concentrated all
+attention on the first, which slowly trotted past my front within thirty
+yards; but, as I had foreseen, had already more than half disappeared
+ere he reached the firing point and my bullet sped towards him; then,
+turning sharp round, I sent the second barrel at the last of the other
+three stags, just bounding from sight into the deep pass on the left.
+The results were of course invisible; both were snap-shots, but I
+_thought_ I had laid on true, and was musing on the possibilities, more
+than half inclined to be ecstatic at having, or believing I had, really
+"pulled off" a clean right and left in my first interview with the
+Spanish red deer, when a rustling in the brushwood in front disturbed
+these happy cogitations, and another stag with three hinds appeared.
+They came forward quite slowly, evidently suspicious of danger ahead,
+and stopping at intervals to look back towards the noisy beaters. They
+rose my hillock at a foot's pace, the stag leading--an
+eight-pointer--and at last stood actually within five yards. There was,
+in fact, nothing between us but the single pine and the slight
+breastwork of bushes I had built up as a screen. The stag stood for
+some seconds gazing backwards over his shoulder; then, as he turned to
+advance, he caught sight of me crouching beneath the junipers, almost
+under his nose--and the bound he took at that instant was a sight to
+remember. Away they dashed, all four, straight along the line of guns;
+but, turning outwards, shortly after leaving my sight, the stag fell to
+the rifle of my next neighbour.
+
+Then the beaters came up, and eagerly we went off to examine the result
+of my two shots. Alas! no _ingentia corpora_ lay there, and on following
+their tracks for some distance, it was quite clear that both stags had
+escaped scatheless. The only relief to deep disappointment was that
+little memorandum I had made beforehand, foretelling the catastrophe,
+which was indeed more attributable to an ill-judged position than to any
+want of care.
+
+Then, shortly afterwards, when I did manage to place my bullet in a fine
+stag of fourteen points, a wide and splendid head, the coveted trophy
+was again lost to me by the rules of sport, owing to the fact that
+another leaden messenger had preceded mine. This stag passed through the
+line far to my right, receiving a shot in the stomach as he passed, the
+effect being to turn him to me, and he passed at full speed not thirty
+yards behind. A ball through the heart rolled him over; but the first
+wound, in his left side, was unquestionably fatal. After this, for a
+long time, no luck fell to my share; only hinds broke near my _puestos_,
+and, though they were most interesting objects, with their timorous
+graceful movements, their great supple ears inflected hither and
+thither, and large affectionate eyes, which gave me infinite pleasure to
+watch, yet they were not available quarry, and passed on unmolested. One
+hind, which passed within ten yards, was followed (January 8th) by a
+tiny fawn. Occasionally a stag came forward, cautiously feeling his way,
+step by step, to make sure of avoiding danger ahead; but these always
+managed to detect something in time, and broke back, or passed through
+at some other point. One of these stood for some seconds almost within
+touch, only a thick bush between us, and others had all but reached the
+fatal line ere they changed their course.
+
+One chance, however, I certainly lost by my own fault. A buzzard came
+sailing along the pine-tops towards me; I was posted on a small plateau
+crowning an isolated hillock, and overlooking a sea of dark green pines.
+Promiscuous shooting is, of course, debarred; but the _batida_ was
+nearly finished; I had seen the beaters cross a ridge within a
+quarter-mile, and determined to have the hawk. Just as the buzzard
+approached a fair range, I observed that a good stag had ascended my
+hillock, and for some twenty yards ran in full view. Then he dropped
+down from sight just before it was possible for me to exchange guns. A
+downright bungle! I would fain have hidden my disgrace in silence, but
+it is a distressing feature of sport on this tell-tale sandy soil, that
+it is impossible to conceal or to mitigate one's "_chambonadas_"--call
+them misfortunes. Nothing moves but leaves behind it an indelible mark,
+and no mark ever escapes the keen eyes of the forest-guards. "Look
+here!" exclaims Anillo, "here has passed a good stag--_aqui ha pasado un
+buen venado!_" "why did not his worship fire?" Why indeed!
+
+Some days passed and I began to fear the campaign might close without a
+change in my luck. Nor were these deep forests particularly interesting
+ornithologically: at first sight they appeared rather devoid of
+bird-life--that is in winter: we have often ridden for hours without
+seeing more than a few ravens or a kite. Among the thick bushy tops of
+the stone-pines were the hawfinches and crossbills, with a few other
+species, but these were remarkably shy and difficult of approach. On
+afternoons when our "drives" were finished before dark, I took the
+opportunity of trying to obtain some of the forest-haunting birds; but
+in this a singular difficulty occurred. In Andalucia the sun gives us an
+hour or two more of his company than on a winter's day at home. All day
+long he shines in a blue and cloudless sky; but when he sets, it is
+night. Hardly has his rim sunk behind the distant pines than it is
+dark, and the nocturnal concert of frogs and owls has commenced; a
+clear, strangely deceptive darkness, for on the ground one cannot see to
+shoot a rabbit or a low-flying woodcock, yet overhead it is still light,
+and day is prolonged for half an hour more. The sunset effects on the
+western skies are gorgeous displays of rich colour, and even in the east
+there is a rosy reflection which rapidly fades away.
+
+But there is none of that pleasant half-light we enjoy in our northern
+clime. The transition from day to night is startlingly sudden, twilight
+lasting only a few minutes. The feathered race is well aware of this and
+prepare for the event by going to roost a full half-hour before sundown.
+One of the first signs of approaching night is the flight of the ravens.
+Perhaps one has not realized the fact that the day is far spent, and is
+reminded of it by their dark files slowly crossing the heavens towards
+their roosting-places while it is yet broad daylight. The same habit is
+observable with the smaller birds. All day long they have been abundant
+enough; but during the last half-hour of daylight not one is to be seen,
+and when their retreat is eventually found they are buried, some in the
+pine-tops, others in thickets of myrtle or lentiscus-scrub--fast asleep
+in daylight. Hence these half-hours at dusk produced but little. One
+evening, while wandering among the pines, a buzzard dipped down from a
+lower branch and silently sped away till a shot in the wing brought him
+down. This bird proved to be one of the remarkably handsome pale
+varieties of _Buteo vulgaris_, the whole plumage of a warm cream-colour,
+slightly mottled and splashed above with dark brown; irides dark and
+claws _white_. My brothers (H. and A.) obtained buzzards in somewhat
+similar plumage in Germany (adults, shot at the nest) in the spring of
+1878, but I have not otherwise met with the variety in Spain, the
+Spanish type being generally dark. Waiting on the line of the raven's
+flight, I dropped a pair of these birds: and shortly afterwards observed
+two very large tawny-coloured eagles flap heavily into a pine, but
+failed to approach within shot, or anything like it.
+
+[Illustration: SPANISH GUNS.]
+
+To return to our deer, and the delightful days spent among the pinales,
+revelling in the lovely winter weather. Luck at length returned: after a
+long day, during which several stags and one pig had been bagged, we
+reached a small _mancha_ known as "El Rincon del Cerro Trigo." This was
+a small beat, and the last of the day; nor was it expected to be
+productive, as our beaters on a former drive must have skirted the outer
+edge of the Rincon. My position was on the brink of a steep sand-slope,
+perhaps fifty feet in height, its summit level with the tops of the
+pines in the _mancha_ below. Outside there stretched away open barrens,
+some small _corrales_ alone serving to break the monotony of utter
+desolation. Hardly expecting a shot, I was sitting idly under cover of a
+bushy pine-top which protruded, half-dead, from the verge of the steep
+descent, when a hind mounted the slope and broke close at hand. This
+aroused me, and a few seconds later she was followed by two
+stags--eight-pointers--slowly crossing out over the open, a lovely shot.
+They were only fifty yards off; but, owing to the irregular outline of
+the _mancha_, my position was somewhat embayed, and it was necessary to
+give the stags extra law to clear that part of our line which bent
+backwards. I watched them traverse nearly fifty yards ere a shot was
+permissible, and by that time they were partly hidden from view among
+some slight hummocks. Any dead cistus or remnant of a sand-submerged
+pine collects around it that shifting substance, and half-hidden amidst
+these my stags were trotting forward when I gave them my double salute.
+Both went on, but on emerging from the hummocks, the larger beast was
+clearly hard-hit, though they continued cantering down the sloping
+ground, and two more bullets at long range only raised little puffs from
+the ground beyond. I knew I was sure of this stag; and a few minutes
+later a finer beast emerged, the ivory tips of his antlers shining white
+in the evening sunlight. Him, I resolved, I must have, and never was gun
+laid on with more intense desire. The distance would be some eighty to
+one hundred yards, and the stag treated the advent of two bullets with
+what looked very like indifference, galloping off at top speed, despite
+a third salute from the express ambushed on my right. I watched him away
+to the edge of a small _corral_ half a mile off, and in which the two
+first stags had sought a retreat. But it was all over with him--poor
+beast, his course was run, and his tracks plainly told the tale to those
+who could read--though I must admit I was not one of them. The _rastro_
+of the first stag showed big blood-clouts almost from the shot, and he
+was easily secured close by where he had disappeared from view. The
+second was far less distinct; indeed, no sign of a "hit" was discerned
+till just before reaching the distant _corral_. Here the faint trace,
+tiny drops of blood, all enveloped in sand, quite indiscernible to my
+eye, were instantly detected by the _guardas_. The dogs were laid on,
+and within a few minutes we heard the crash which told of the stag at
+bay. The final scene was just completed when I reached the spot--on
+foot, for in the rough scramble through forest and broken ground I had
+managed to get thrown, gun and all, and preferred to finish the pursuit
+on my legs. The first ball had passed through the ribs, rather far
+back; the second ("express") had entered his stern. The first stag was
+also shot through the "lisk"--not brilliant performances, perhaps! but I
+had got my two stags, the first carrying nine points, the second a
+shapely wild head of eleven: and, since those days, we have now and then
+succeeded in placing the rifle-ball in more orthodox positions.[76]
+Quite the finest hart of this campaign fell on the same beat--a superb
+head of fifteen points, having extremely broad and massive horns, though
+of no special size of body. Total bag for the day: eight stags (two
+royals) and two wild pig.
+
+[Illustration: THE ELEVEN-POINTER.]
+
+[Illustration: A FIFTEEN-POINTER.]
+
+ * * * * *
+
+As a sequel to the above, it may be interesting to annex the following
+diploma of the "Royal and distinguished Order of Mae Corra," conferred
+upon the writer shortly after the events narrated. Our readers may
+translate it or leave it at their own risk.
+
+ Por cuanto Don A---- B---- C----, vecino de Inglaterra ha hecho
+ digno del distintivo que usan los cazadores de la Real y
+ Distinguida Orden de la Mae Corra, matando por primera vez un
+ venado de nueve puntas en la Mancha de Cerro del Trigo Coto de Dª
+ Ana partido de la Marismilla termino de Almonte el 12 de Enero,
+ 1878.
+
+ Yo D. Carlos Fernandez Brescaglia, Decano de los cazadores de esta
+ ciudad suficientemente autorizado expido el presente Diploma para
+ que el referido Don A---- B---- C---- pueda usar libremente el
+ mencionado distintivo que debe ser en un todo conforme al modelo
+ adjunto.
+
+ Dado en San Lucar de Barrameda el 17 de Enero de 1878.
+
+ El Decano,
+ (Signed) CARLOS FERNANDEZ BRESCAGLIA.
+
+ El Secretario,
+ (Signed) DOMINGO L. DE VILLEGAS.
+
+ The insignia referred to represent a couple of stags' antlers,
+ locked in mortal combat, with the legend:--
+
+ "Ab istis ventis liberet te Deus si maritus es."
+
+[Illustration: "DROPPED IN HIS TRACKS."]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+WINTER IN THE MARSHES.
+
+
+SNIPE-SHOOTING.
+
+Spanish, _Agachona_, _agachadiza_.
+
+Portuguese, _Narceja_.
+
+The Peninsula has always been famous for its snipe-shooting, but the
+sport differs in some ways from that practised on British marsh or moor.
+The snipe in Spain does not, as a rule, frequent rushes or other covert.
+The Spanish marshes in winter afford scant covert of any kind; hence the
+snipe is proportionately wilder. Rarely does the long-bill spring at
+close range: the bulk of the bag must be cut down at such distances that
+a snipe-shooter at home would very probably decline the offer--without
+thanks. But there are exceptions to this. In certain localities,
+particularly in Portugal, we have enjoyed excellent snipe-shooting on
+wide-spread expanses of rushy marsh and under home conditions. The
+rice-stubbles also, in districts where rice is grown, afford perhaps the
+finest snipe-shooting, often with abundant covert.
+
+Many of the best snipe-grounds, however, may be described as inundated
+pastures. Here the summer-scorched herbage barely hides the naked
+earth--or rather fine mud, more slippery than ice. The ground here,
+however, is firm; the _deep-mud_ bogs are quite another, but equally
+favourite resort. Before one's view there stretches away what appears to
+be a verdant meadow, dead level, and clad in rich green grass. Walk out
+on it, and you find it is bog, soft as pulp--millions of flat-topped,
+quivering tussocks, each separated by narrow intervals of squashy
+slime, knee-deep if you are lucky; the tussocks afford no foothold, the
+slime no stability--you cannot stand still, yet hardly dare advance.
+Before you, behind you, to the right and left, rise snipe in scores--in
+clouds: the air resounds with petulant, tantalizing cries. But you
+cannot steady yourself for an instant to shoot: to halt on hummock or
+balance on mire is equally impossible--not that it matters much, for
+hardly a snipe has sprung within fifty yards; the majority at over one
+hundred. At length one rises close at hand--a jack, probably--and in a
+supreme effort to avenge outraged dignity by his death, equilibrium is
+hopelessly lost, and the snipe-shooter slowly sinks to a sitting posture
+amidst mire and mud that reaches to his waistcoat-pockets.
+
+So extremely flat and naked are these marshes that not a snipe, one
+would imagine, could manage to hide thereon. Yet even with a powerful
+field-glass not a single snipe can be detected where hundreds are
+squatting. Their power of concealment is marvellous, and is recognized
+in the Spanish name, "_agachar_" meaning to hide, or "lie low."
+
+Where the flight of the birds is known, or where two or three
+well-frequented marshes lie adjacent, excellent sport may be had by
+lying in wait at one bog whilst the others are being shot over. This is
+a matter of local knowledge. A driven snipe, or string of snipes, high
+overhead, or a jack pitching in to alight, like a butterfly in a breeze,
+offer shots as varied and difficult as even our modern masters of
+legerdemain in the arts of gunnery can well desire.
+
+Broadly speaking, all the best snipe-grounds in accessible
+districts--aye, and some fairly inaccessible ones too--may be said to be
+preserved. There may, probably do, exist unknown and unpreserved spots
+which would abundantly reward the explorer; but, in a general way, the
+casual sportsman on the unpreserved wilds of Spain or Portugal should
+not reckon on more than ten, twelve, or perhaps fifteen brace of snipe
+per day. On preserved grounds, the following figures, selected at random
+from records of over twenty years, will best show the sport that may be
+had with snipe in Southern Spain:--
+
+_Nov. 20, 1873._--Catalana (3 guns), 166 snipe, 1 pigeon, 10 quail, 1
+landrail = 178 head.
+
+_Nov. 30, 1873._--Catalana (2 guns), 115 snipe, 2 woodcock, 3 rails, 1
+waterhen, 1 bittern = 122 head.
+
+_Dec. 21, 1873._--El Torno (3 guns), 108 snipe, 17 woodcock, 3 rabbits,
+8 golden plover, 2 pigeons, 1 badger = 139 head.
+
+_Dec. 20, 1874._--Retuerta (4 guns), 160 snipe, 36 duck and teal, a
+marsh-harrier, and 8 sundries = 205 head.
+
+_Nov. 18, 1877._--Retuerta (3 guns, half day), 103 snipe, 4 quail, 2
+partridge, 6 ducks, 1 goose, 2 rails, 1 eagle = 119 head.
+
+_Nov. 19, 1882._--(3 guns), 155 snipe, 28 sundries.
+
+_Dec. 1886._--(1 gun), 96 snipe: 20 couple shot passing over one spot,
+from one marsh to another.
+
+_Dec. 4, 1889._--Rocina (6 guns), 232 snipe, besides partridge, quail,
+duck, &c.
+
+_Dec. 12, 1889._--Retuerta (2 guns, W. E. Brymer and W. J. B.), 60
+snipe, 58 ducks, 11 geese = 129 head.
+
+
+WOODCOCK.
+
+Spanish, _Chocha_--(Andalucia) _Gallineta_.
+
+Arrives in November, but never in any quantities--ten or twelve couple
+in a day is an unusual bag, and we have none worth recording.
+
+The latest woodcocks shot in Andalucia are about the middle of March.
+
+
+QUAILS.
+
+Spanish, _Codorniz_.
+
+Though not strictly marsh-birds, yet quails at times abound among the
+moist rushy prairies, both of Spain and Portugal, and hardly a hillock
+of drier ground or microscopic patch of maize-stubble but will yield a
+brace or two.
+
+The largest bag we can find recorded in our game-books is 52 brace in a
+day; but believe this has been, and certainly easily might be, largely
+exceeded. At certain passage-periods the Andalucian _vegas_ simply swarm
+with this dashing little game-bird, and at such times, with dogs well
+entered to quail, very large bags might be secured by any one specially
+following them.
+
+One afternoon, when returning from snipe-shooting, we fell in with an
+_entrada_ of quail, in a belt of dry rush and sedges, and had bagged
+27-1/2 couples in much less than an hour, when daylight and cartridges
+ran short.
+
+ANDALUCIAN QUAIL.--Unlike its larger relative, this small quail is not
+migratory; a few are found at all seasons, especially on the dry
+palmetto-plains, where at dusk its curious "roaring" note, from which is
+derived its Spanish name _torillo_ = little bull, is often audible.
+
+Our friend, Mr. W. R. Teage, meets with a few of this small bush-quail
+nearly every year when shooting near Ovar, in Portugal--generally in
+September.
+
+
+THE CRANE.
+
+Spanish, _Grulla_.
+
+He who eats the flesh of crane, runs a Spanish proverb, lives a hundred
+years[77]--and beyond all question the stately _Grulla_ is one of the
+wariest and most difficult birds to circumvent.
+
+Cranes are common enough throughout all the open _vegas_ and
+corn-growing plains of Andalucia from early autumn till spring: few days
+but one sees them either passing high overhead in loudly-gaggling
+skeins, or feeding in troops on the newly-sown beans or wheat. In the
+latter case, cranes are not infrequently mistaken for bustard, but
+rarely permit the cordon of mounted men to be drawn around their
+position; for, though rarely sought after, the crane is imbued with even
+wilder spirit than the much-prized bustard. For many years, the few
+_Grullas_ we succeeded in killing were merely chance-shots at bands
+passing over, when we had happened to be concealed by tall sedges or
+bulrush; and even these only by virtue of mould-shot at very great
+heights.
+
+During a recent winter, however, we discovered a means of shooting these
+wary fowl. It is the habit of a crane to assemble at some remote marsh
+for the purpose of roosting. By day, it should be specially remarked,
+the crane is _not_ a marsh-haunting bird, but is only seen on _dry_
+ground, feeding entirely on grain, acorns, and the like; but invariably
+retiring to the marshes, or wettest spot on the prairie, to roost.
+Towards the sequestered swamp selected for their _dormidero_, during the
+last hour of daylight, files of cranes may be seen winging their stately
+course. As darkness gathers round, the assembling host presents an
+animated scene, while the music of their magnificent trumpet-note
+resounds for miles around.
+
+Such a spectacle we witnessed one March evening when on a
+bustard-shooting expedition; and returning a week later, had, at length,
+the wary cranes at our mercy. Ensconced in "blinds" of rudely-woven
+carices near the centre of a dreary swamp, we soon had these majestic
+birds filing close overhead, or flapping past at pistol-range. Not less
+than 500 cranes must have appeared, "flighting" from every point of the
+compass, and the sight, with the sound of their clarion-notes, formed,
+for half an hour, as impressive a spectacle of bird-life as we have
+witnessed.
+
+There is intense gratification in out-generalling any animal that has
+long defied one's efforts; but it is rather a sense of supremacy than
+mere slaughter that is sought. After shooting seven specimens of the
+"flighting" _Grullas_, we were content, and have never since molested
+them. This marsh, which, being "ten miles from anywhere," is an awkward
+place for evening flight-shooting, continued to be their nightly resort
+till well on into April, after which date the crane disappears from
+Southern Spain; though (as elsewhere recorded) a small and decreasing
+colony continues to breed in the neighbourhood of the Lagunas de Janda.
+
+
+THE DEMOISELLE CRANE.
+
+(_Grus virgo._)
+
+We have seen several examples of this beautiful species shot in the
+marismas and corn-plains of Andalucia during the spring-months. It is
+just possible that a few pairs may still breed somewhere in that wide
+region, though no ornithologist has yet succeeded in establishing the
+fact.
+
+[Illustration: STORK'S NEST--THE BANDERAS, SEVILLE.]
+
+
+WHITE STORK.
+
+Spanish, _Ciguena_.
+
+Though not a sporting bird in any sense, and in some respects almost
+_sacred_, the stork attracts the sportsman's attention by its size,
+boldly-marked plumage, and majestic appearance on the wing. Nesting
+chiefly in the towns, on churches and other buildings, as well as on the
+peasants' cots and on trees in the country, storks are dispersed in
+hundreds during winter over the marshy plains, though many also migrate
+to Africa at that season. Their food consists of frogs, as well as
+lizards and various small reptiles and insects; in May we have watched
+them snapping up locusts by dozens.
+
+
+BLACK STORK.
+
+Spanish, _Ciguena negra_.
+
+The only birds of this species we have killed are a pair, shot right and
+left, near Jerez, in March, many years ago. We have reason to believe
+that the black stork breeds on the Upper Guadiana, and in Castile have
+observed it in May.
+
+On May 16th, 1891, we watched a pair which evidently had a nest in the
+crags overhanging the Rio Alberche, New Castile, but had not time to
+discover its exact position. Manuel de la Torre states that it breeds
+yearly in the Montes de Toledo.
+
+
+BITTERN.
+
+Spanish, _Ave-toro, garza-mochuelo_.
+
+Twenty winters ago, in the marshes below Ovar, in Portugal, my dog
+_Nilo_ came to a "point" near a clump of thick sedges. Two yards before
+his nose I espied a strange apparition--a mere point erect amidst the
+rank herbage, hardly thicker than and much resembling a sere and yellow
+flag: there was no visible semblance of head or form--only a sharp
+beak, and an eye which seemed to be a part thereof; the whole slim
+object pointing vertically heavenward. Next moment the insignificant
+point developed into a huge brown bird--more and more expanses of brown
+feathers emerged from the sedge till a pair of heavy green hanging legs
+wound up the procession. When both barrels were emptied, I had time to
+perceive that a bittern was slowly flapping away.
+
+Those were bitter moments: but since then we have killed many a bittern
+while snipe-shooting, and could have killed many more had there been any
+object; for they lie very close, and offer a mark like a haystack.
+
+According to the Spanish peasants, the flesh of the bittern is
+health-giving (_muy saludable_): and the same worthies also state that
+the strange boom is produced with the beak half-immersed in water.
+
+
+RAILS, CRAKES, ETC.
+
+The landrail, reversing its home habits, is only found in Spain in
+autumn and winter, its well-known spring-note being never heard in this
+southern land. The common water-rail, the spotted crake and Baillon's
+crake are all three abundant in winter in the marshes--more so than in
+spring: and we have also shot the small (unspotted) crake--on one
+occasion, one of these intensely-skulking birds was induced to take wing
+by a dead snipe falling right on to his strangely compressed little
+body.
+
+Water-hens are as common as at home; and at rare intervals the great
+purple water-hen is sprung by the spaniels from some sedgy morass. This
+fine bird, like the crakes, is very difficult to flush; but on occasion,
+when burning the cane-brakes to drive out deer, wild cats, &c., we have
+seen two or three in a day.
+
+Coots (two species) in certain localities afford fine sport, by
+"driving" with a number of boats: we have bagged thus over 100 in a day,
+besides other wildfowl; and grebes, also of two species, besides the
+little dabchick, are also abundant.
+
+
+GEESE AND DUCKS.
+
+It is unnecessary to add more than a mere list of the various _Anatidae_
+to be met with in winter in Southern Spain.
+
+Grey geese arrive in thousands in November to remain till February. Our
+best bags (flight-shooting) are: in one day, 81; in four days, 247. This
+was in November, 1889. The great majority of these are greylags, the
+remainder being of the "bean" description. We have shot no other
+species, though others occur. The Spanish name for all geese is
+_anseres_ or _gansos_.
+
+Mallard (_pato real_).--Common at all seasons.
+
+Pintail (_rabudo_).--Abundant in _wet_ winters; in dry seasons they pass
+on into Africa.
+
+Shoveler (_paleton_).--Abundant every winter.
+
+Gadwall (_friso_, or _silbon real_).--Rather scarce in winter; a few
+breed in Andalucia.
+
+Wigeon (_silbon_).--In millions, October till March.
+
+Garganey (_capitanes_, or _caretones_).--Irregular; some years many are
+shot in November, and again in March.
+
+Teal (_zarceta_).--Come in clouds in October.
+
+Marbled Duck (_pardilla_, or _ruhilla_).--A summer duck, rarely seen
+after the end of November. Returns in March, and breeds in hundreds.
+
+Pochard (_cabezon_).--Only _locally_ common, in winter.
+
+Tufted Duck.--Have shot these occasionally on the rivers in winter, and
+up to April.
+
+White-eyed Pochard (_negrete_).--Chiefly a summer duck, but common in
+November and early December, and again in February.
+
+White-faced Duck (_porron_).--Another summer duck, not seen in
+mid-winter.
+
+Scoter (_pato negro_).--In big flights on the coast in winter: shot a
+drake on Guadalquivir, April 8th.
+
+Merganser.--Once or twice shot in winter--the only member of the
+_merginae_ we have met with.
+
+Sheld-duck (_pato-tarro_, or _ansareta_).--Several shot in winter in
+marisma. Some remain to breed.
+
+Ruddy Sheld-duck (_labanco, pato canelo_).--A few shot in winter and
+early spring: breeds in _barrancos_ or low cliffs in the Isla Menor, &c.
+
+NOTE.--The ducks of the Spanish marismas are extremely irregular as to
+the species which appear: these varying with the seasons and state of
+the water. Thus, one winter, pintails will swarm; another, gadwalls and
+garganeys are conspicuous; the next, at corresponding seasons, one or
+the other will, perhaps, be almost entirely absent.
+
+
+WILD SWANS.
+
+Spanish, _Cisne_.
+
+These are rare and exceptional stragglers to Southern Spain. In
+February, 1891 (a severe winter further north), we found four wild
+swans--two fully adult, one of them a very large bird--frequenting the
+Lucios de la Madre, in the marismas of Guadalquivir. They were very
+wild, and even when alone and separate from other fowl, refused to allow
+the approach of our gunning-punt. Eventually we fired at them at long
+range (No. 1 shot), but, though one was badly struck, we failed to
+secure it: have little doubt, from their note and appearance, they were
+hoopers.
+
+
+AUGUST IN THE MARSHES.
+
+Since writing the above, we have enjoyed a new experience--a
+duck-shooting campaign in August. During two days, some 250 ducks were
+bagged, of which half were mallards (the drakes already distinguishable
+on wing), and of the rest the greater proportion were marbled ducks, the
+following species being also included:--gadwall, garganey, ferruginous
+and white-faced ducks, ruddy sheld-duck, three or four teal, and two
+pintails.
+
+The latter were probably wounded birds lingering since the preceding
+winter; which may also, perhaps, explain the presence of three greylag
+geese which were seen but not secured. Several common snipe were also
+shot--these facts afford "food for reflection!"
+
+During the shooting, the air was alive with birds; besides ducks, there
+were herons of all sorts--old and young--egrets, white spoonbills,
+night-herons--many young ones, brown and speckled like
+bitterns--together with crested and eared grebes, dabchicks, terns,
+coots and pratincoles in thousands; while above all, sailed files of
+glossy ibis with curious barking croaks, several cormorants, and a
+string of cranes.
+
+Among miscellaneous birds shot were most of the above, with little
+bitterns, various rails and one purple waterhen, little gulls, whimbrels
+(?) and bar-tailed godwit.
+
+It is worth adding that a dead bird, left floating, was completely
+devoured in less than five minutes by water-beetles (_Dyticus_), which
+hollowed out the body and left nothing, but empty skin and feathers! One
+felt that, had one the bad luck to get bogged, these creatures were
+capable of making away with a man well under half an hour.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+
+DEER-STALKING AND "STILL-HUNTING"
+
+ON THE SOUTHERN PLAINS.
+
+
+Though left to the last, the system of "_rastreando_," as it is called
+in Spanish--stalking or "still-hunting," as we have rendered it in
+English (though neither expression is perhaps a precise equivalent),
+affords some of the prettiest sport to be obtained with the rifle in the
+Peninsula. As an example of this sport, we have taken our latest and not
+least successful deer-stalking expedition, which took place in March,
+1892--exactly twenty years after the campaign recorded in the _first_
+chapter (p. 23) of our book.
+
+There only remained a few days before the season for deer-shooting would
+close. For more than a week we had been ready awaiting a change in the
+weather; but heavy rains day by day delayed a start. Never had there
+been known so wet a winter. From the Giralda tower at Seville, the whole
+country appeared a sea, and the great river, in the early days of March,
+was causing serious anxieties to the Sevillanos, having reached a higher
+level than local records had hitherto known. Already its angry waters
+dashed in foam over the key-stones of Triana bridge; the transpontine
+suburb was submerged to the second floors; from its flat roofs starving
+men and women cried for bread as boats passed by, navigating,
+Venetian-fashion, the flooded streets. The city itself was an
+island--only preserved from inundation by incessant labour at the
+embankments, over whose topmost stones the menacing waves already
+lapped, when a lull in the storm saved Seville. A breach in that
+embankment or a further rise, and the stately and historic city had
+been swept away--as Consuegra and many a small town or village was swept
+away in Southern Spain daring the terrible floods of 'ninety-two.
+
+Such climatic conditions would not be wholly unfavourable for
+deer-stalking--reducing the area over which the game is
+scattered--provided there should now be some cessation of the down-pour.
+A lull had at length occurred, and the writer set out from Seville to
+spend the few remaining days of the season in a remote region of those
+brush-clad prairies which cover so vast an area in Southern Spain. My
+only companions were two Spanish _cazadores_, brothers, men of keen eye
+and of tried skill in woodcraft. The object was to endeavour by
+_rastreando_, or still-hunting, to secure a few of the old and wary
+stags which roamed over these barren down-lands; but which were far too
+cunning to lose their lives in the customary Spanish _batidas_, or
+drives. Was it possible, single-handed, and on such comparatively open
+ground, to out-manoeuvre these old forest-monarchs, which, on a former
+visit, we had seen make good their escape from six or eight rifles? This
+question we decided to solve, and to devote the remaining days to
+"still-hunting," abandoning every other form of attack.
+
+The rains had left much of these rolling downs too wet for shelter, many
+of the thickets and patches of "scroggy" wood being breast-deep in
+water. The _picaros tunantes_, _i.e._, cunning old rogues, as Manuel
+termed our friends the big stags, were therefore reduced for dry-lying
+to the higher ridges and plateaux of the plains; and these, it chanced,
+lay at the greatest distance--a long two-days' ride.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+The sun was low ere our horses' hoofs resounded on dry land, instead of
+the constant splash, splosh through flooded hollows or standing pools of
+rain-water. Here, too, the swelling prairie afforded rather more covert.
+We had now reached favourable ground, and from each rising point we
+examined the surrounding country with minute scrutiny, scanning each
+nook and corner with the binoculars. After a while we made out the head
+of a stag, apparently feeding beyond a belt of _abolagas_ and
+jungle-grass. A direct stalk--which otherwise seemed fairly
+feasible--would, under existing conditions, have necessitated _swimming_
+a considerable part of the distance, and the lateness of the hour
+forbade our making a long detour, which also seemed to offer a chance of
+success. We therefore adopted a third course, and after quickly covering
+some two miles, mostly through prickly spear-grass or water, reached a
+ridge which my companion reckoned would command the course of the deer
+as he led forward. On peering through the bushes on the crest, the stag
+was nowhere to be seen--we had overshot the point, and he was now far to
+the right. Before us stretched a long tongue of marshy water, choked
+with grasses, and aquatic herbage floating on its surface. With a
+sardonic grin, M. assured me that that grass would prove the death of
+our stag. "He will feed along that pool," he whispered, "nibbling the
+water-plants and sprouting grass; but first the daylight must decline."
+Ten minutes later, the antlers showed, stealing from some distant
+covert; then the beast stepped into the open, advancing towards the
+water. But suspicion torments him--between each petulant snatch at the
+herbage, he stops and listens, raises his antlered head to gaze back
+towards the point whence we had first viewed him: he little thinks the
+enemy he fears behind is now close in his front. Presently suspicion
+seems allayed: he advances with stealthy strides along the grassy edge,
+and already approaches the limits of very long range. The express was
+ready cocked when the stag recommenced sniffing and gazing, now he turns
+and walks away: the wind is shifty, and to get it full in his nostrils
+he bears from us. Clearly he will not now pass our point near enough for
+a shot, so back to lower ground we "slither," and run forward at best
+speed to cut him out at another point. Still he is out of shot--800
+yards off--and another race to the front is necessary, a lung-trying
+spin of a quarter-mile. Now, we must perforce rest, panting, for a few
+moments, ere we again crawl up the ascent and "speer" over the ridge.
+The stag is nowhere to be seen--yes, there he is! he has both heard and
+seen us now, and is bounding at top-speed over our very ridge, not
+seventy yards in advance. Ere the rifle can be levelled and a ball
+dispatched, the stag has dipped the crest: but the second barrel, after
+a flying run to the ridge, affords more deliberate aim at about 120
+yards. "He has it," quietly remarks my companion, and as the galloping
+stag displays his extended flank, the blood-patch on his side is clearly
+marked, but _too far back_. Poor beast! though fatally struck, there is
+no chance to recover him to-night, for already the sun dips behind the
+distant _pinales_--it is too late to think of following him, and sadly
+we return to our horses. Ten miles to ride, and the evening spent
+discussing "muckle harts" and their haunts on the neighbouring wilds.
+
+All night wind and rain: at daybreak the clouds indicated better things,
+but after a few fitful gleams of sunlight, the deluge set in once more.
+This and the next day were very bad:--wasted. It was only possible to
+pass the time shooting a few rabbits for the use of the _rancho_--the
+partridges were all paired long ago; but a lucky shot at a nervous band
+of sand-grouse secured four, and in some rush-clad backwaters we picked
+up a few snipe and two or three couples of wild-duck.
+
+Next morning, at dawn, we set out to look for deer, the pannier-ponies
+following at a distance, with instructions never to come up unless shots
+had been fired. Facing the gale, we struck out across far-extending
+heaths, where the scrub, as a rule, is of convenient height for shooting
+over, but where, in the hollows or dells, are found deep thickets, or
+_manchas_. These jungle-patches cover from one or two up to thirty acres
+in extent: here the growth of thorny shrub and pampas-grass is much
+higher, thicker, and more densely entwined, affording secure "lying" for
+deer and other animals.
+
+No rain had fallen since the early hours of the morning: hence the
+light, sodden soil exhibited the traces of every beast which had
+traversed it to perfection. It was some time before we found tracks
+large enough to betoken one of our friends, the _tunantes_. The brothers
+had followed two or three _rastros_ for short distances, but were not
+satisfied with their importance. Small stags, hinds, lynx, fox and boar
+had wandered hither and thither, and were now doubtless sleeping away
+the hours of daylight in some of the neighbouring thickets. Hours
+passed, but no _rastro gordo_ (heavy track) was discovered, though every
+sign and impress on the light sandy soil was read as a book by the
+brothers, who quartered the ground to right and left like a brace of
+first-rate setters. M. was the first to find: suddenly he stopped and
+beckoned:--yes, those prints are undoubtedly of far larger hoofs than
+any we have yet seen: nor are they the spoor of one _tunante_, but of
+two. Here, says M., look where the two big beasts have stopped together
+to nibble the shoots of this _escobon_ (genista)--there they have
+stripped a _romero_ (rosemary) of its mauve-coloured blossoms--and here,
+along this hollow, they have taken their way at daybreak, direct towards
+some thicket-sanctuary. Now, we will not leave them, adds the wild man,
+till you have had a _carambola a boca de jarro!_ "a right-and-left at
+half-range." For three or four miles, we follow the line, the men hardly
+deigning to look on the ground, but making, as by instinct, for points
+at which we invariably picked up the trail. At first it was all plain
+sailing; but presently we came to places where to our eyes no trace of
+spoor existed--to swamps where the uninitiated would detect no sign in
+bruised water-flower or bent sedge-shoot; we passed beneath
+pine-coppices where the thick-lying needles told _him_ no tale of nimble
+feet that had pressed them hours before. At such spots a check
+occasionally occurred, when the brothers, muttering maledictions on old
+stags in general, and still more scandalous reflections on the maternal
+ancestry of these two in particular, opened out till one or the other
+caught the thread. The discovery was signalled by holding up a hand, and
+on we file, all three pressing quickly forward along the fatal trail. A
+pretty sight to watch these men cast like sleuth-hounds, when the trace
+was apparently lost--though lost it never was.
+
+Now, after four miles or more, the trail gave certain indications that
+were interpreted to mean a desire on the part of the deer to seek
+shelter for the day--not a change in their course but its import was
+calculated by the hunters. As the spoor approached each small jungle,
+the writer went forward in advance, leaving the men to follow the
+_rastro_. Several thickets had been tried in this way, but each time the
+beasts had passed through and gone on. Now there stretched away before
+us a long narrow belt of covert, and approaching this the indications of
+the spoor showed that the two deer, as the men put it, _van de
+recojida_, _i.e._, had entered the jungle wearily, and would now be
+couched within it. The covert was too long to risk putting the gun at
+the end, as the game might break on either side; so we decided to walk
+through it in line. Unluckily the growth was dense and high--in most
+places we could not see two yards in front, a tantalizing situation when
+one knew that each step might now bring one to the promised
+right-and-left! We had barely progressed 200 yards when the startled
+deer arose.[78] I heard the rush and the crash of the undergrowth, but
+could see nothing; my ear told me they had gone to the right, and
+pushing through the jungle in that direction, a slight clearing in the
+long grass showed a glimpse of the two heads appearing now and again
+above the scrub as the deer bounded away. I fired both barrels of the
+express, directing one at each animal. After the shots nothing could be
+seen; but one hart was down, a beast of twelve points. The other barrel
+appeared to have been a miss--the larger _tunante_ of the two had
+escaped, _Caramba!_ Not for long did such doubts torment us, for, on
+cutting off the spoor outside the covert, the tell-tale blood was seen
+on the cistus-twigs and on the sandy soil. We followed the wounded beast
+for four hours through possible and even impossible places. His pace
+never slackened--he seemed to be bound for Portugal. I suggested
+slipping a couple of dogs; but the idea was overruled. "The _tunante_ is
+struck in the haunch," said they, "and before dogs, would run for hours:
+he would reach the big _pinales_, six leagues away. Our chance consists
+in his keeping the more open ground and smaller thickets. Before sundown
+we will overtake him; but _then_, you must put your bullet in a better
+place." These bloodhounds never doubted--on we went, patiently following
+the now easier trail, and before sundown we _did_ overtake him. Then, as
+he rushed from a clump of big bulrushes in a shallow lagoon, where the
+fevered beast had lain down in the water, the express bullet lodged in
+_el mismissimo corazon_=in his very heart: and the panniers were
+balanced with two of the heaviest old stags that ever roamed on
+Andalucian plain.
+
+The next day, a downpour of rain just at the critical moment--when game
+and other wild beasts are returning to their lairs--obliterated every
+_rastro_, and a fresh stratagem had to be employed. This was to find and
+rouse the stag, and then to follow the trail--necessarily a longer and
+more delicate operation than that last described, since the suspicions
+of the animal are thoroughly aroused; he is alarmed, and traverses great
+distances ere again he goes to cover. He is, moreover, apt to go away
+very wild on the second approach. The half-inundated condition of the
+country, however, was in our favour; and late in the afternoon, having
+traced a stag for many weary leagues, I had the satisfaction of pulling
+down a beast of "royal" rank by a very long shot.
+
+The next day--and the last of the season--might have been one of those
+contributory to the Noachian deluge. Again, despite wind and weather, a
+_venado_ of eleven points rewarded our efforts. This stag gave us much
+trouble: put up early in the morning, it was night ere he was secured.
+My first shot, a long one, struck him heavily, but he ran for hours
+before the dogs. We took to our horses in pursuit, but thrice he foiled
+us--both scent and spoor being obliterated by the rain. Twice, by wide
+"casts" of a mile or more in circuit, we recovered the lost thread, but
+the third time not a trace could we discover, and had almost given him
+up for lost, when he jumped up, a long way ahead, before the dogs. At
+top-speed we ran him to the deep waters of Martinazo, and when at last
+we overhauled him, he was making his last gallant fight with the two
+hounds, which held him at bay, breast-deep, in the moonlight.
+
+During the long homeward ride on the morrow, we came on the big round
+"pugs" of a lynx, and after following them a couple of miles to his
+lair, he, too--a big and handsome male--was added to the bag by a single
+shot from the express. By nightfall we again reached the outposts of
+civilization, well content with the results of the campaign--four good
+stags and a lynx--and the wind-up of the sporting season of 1891-92.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX.
+
+
+
+
+PART I.
+
+THE LARGE GAME OF SPAIN AND PORTUGAL,
+
+WITH NOTES ON OTHER SPANISH MAMMALIA.
+
+
+The large game, or _caza mayor_, of Spain comprises nine or ten animals,
+several of which have been dealt with specifically in separate chapters.
+We now describe more particularly those not mentioned elsewhere, and
+complete a general review of other Spanish _mammalia_ by a few
+supplementary remarks.
+
+The beasts of chase in the Peninsula are the red, roe, and fallow deer;
+the Spanish ibex and chamois; wild boars, and bears of two varieties,
+the wolf and Spanish lynx.
+
+
+RED DEER (_Cervus elaphus_).
+
+Spanish: _Ciervo_, _Venado_.
+
+Scattered locally throughout the Peninsula, the Spanish red deer present
+two distinct types, both differing from the Scotch animal in the absence
+of the neck-ruff, or mane. The forest-deer of the wooded plains, or
+_cotos_, carry small and rather narrow heads, measuring from 24 to 28
+inches in length of horn, and some 18 to 24 in beam.
+
+The mountain-deer, on the other hand, often exhibit a magnificent
+horn-development. We have seen heads from the Sierra Morena, and from
+the Montes de Toledo, whose massive antlers rival those of the wapiti,
+reaching 36 and even 40 inches and upwards in length, with a breadth of
+three feet.
+
+The rutting season of the red deer commences in the Coto Donana at the
+end of August (the last quarter of the August moon), and continues till
+the full moon in September. We have seen fawns following their mothers
+as early as January, but May is the month when they are usually dropped.
+
+The antlers fall in April--few stags are seen with them in May. During
+the hornless period of spring and summer, the stags seek shelter in the
+densest thickets with damp lying: they also "lie out," like hares, in
+open country, and it is surprising how they conceal themselves--a big
+hart will lie completely hidden among rushes not two feet high. The
+flies at this season are a terrible torture to them, attacking the
+sprouting horns and tender surroundings.
+
+Deer-shooting commences in November, and ends in February or early in
+March; and it is only necessary to add that all lands in which deer are
+found, both on mountain and plain, are preserved.
+
+MEASUREMENT OF RED DEER HEADS.
+
+_Forest-Deer._
+
+ Length. Circumference. Beam.
+ No. 1. 8 points (small) 17-3/4 3-1/2 16-1/2 inches.
+ " 2. 11 " " 24-1/4 3-3/4 19-1/2 "
+ " 3. 12 " (royal) 29 5-1/4 25 "
+ " 4. 13 " " 22-3/4 4-1/16 22-1/2 "
+
+_Mountain-Deer._
+
+ Length. Beam.
+ No. 1. 12 points 34-1/2 inches. 32 inches.
+ " 2. 12 " 36 " 34 "
+ " 3. 15 " 37-1/2 " 34-1/2 "
+ " 4.{**} 17 " 40 " 36-1/2 "
+
+{**} No. 4. This magnificent beast, of which we annex two photos (see
+pp. 360 and 430), was shot near Marmolejos in the Sierra Morena.
+
+
+FALLOW DEER (_Cervus dama_).
+
+In Spanish: _Gamo_, _Paleto_.
+
+These deer are not indigenous, but were introduced by the Romans,
+probably from Asia Minor; and are, as at home, more or less private
+property. At the same time they exist in a perfectly wild state, and
+quite unenclosed, at several places--especially in the neighbourhood of
+Madrid, where the Royal estates of Aranjuez, Rio-frio, El Pardo, &c.,
+have tended to disseminate a wild race outside their boundaries.
+
+The Spanish fallow deer are of the spotted axis-like type.
+
+
+THE ROEBUCK IN SPAIN.
+
+(_Cervus capreolus_.)
+
+Though plentiful in the wooded ravines of the sierras, where it
+frequents sapling-thickets in preference either to scrub or forest
+proper, yet the roe is seldom made a special object of pursuit. The few
+roebuck--in Spanish, _corzo_--that have fallen to our guns have been
+killed when in pursuit of pig or other game.
+
+Yet to this deer we owe as narrow an escape as can be faced; while
+roe-shooting in the Sierra de la Jarda, and riding along a precipitous
+goat-track, a projecting crag barred the way: in rounding the
+obstruction, it was necessary that the horses should simultaneously make
+an upward step or two on a sort of rock-stair. During this awkward
+manoeuvre, one _jaca_ brought his flank sharply in collision with the
+crag, struggled for one desperate moment to recover equilibrium, and
+then plunged, broadside on, down the precipice. His rider, springing
+from the stirrups, clutched a _retamo_ bush, and thus hung suspended
+"between the devil and the deep." Poor _Bolero_ fell crashing through
+the ilexes that clung to the crag--we could hear the smashing of branch
+after branch as he broke his way downwards. We descended to recover the
+gun, saddle, and equipments from the killed horse; but, to our
+amazement, found him quietly grazing--the gun still in the slings, the
+bridle over his nose--hardly, beyond a cut or two, the worse for his
+adventure. The fall was over 100 feet, but the stout branches of ilex
+and _chaparro_, with a marvellous measure of luck, had saved his life.
+
+Roebuck, in Spain, are mostly killed with large shot (slugs), not ball;
+and to those who are content with this game, nearly all the southern
+sierras would yield a measure of sport, combined with occasional
+chances at pig, and this often on unpreserved grounds.
+
+Roe are confined to the mountains--never found on the plains.
+
+
+THE SPANISH IBEX (_Capra hispanica_).
+
+Of the _Cabra montes_ we have already treated (chapters xi. to xiii.,
+pp. 128-172), and now add some notes which we contributed to the
+_Badminton Library_ through our friend Mr. C. Phillipps-Wolley, the
+editor of the Big Game volumes.
+
+[Illustration: FIVE-YEAR-OLD IBEX.]
+
+The Spanish mountaineer does not much affect ibex-hunting, though there
+are in each mountain-village some who try to earn a few precarious
+dollars by it. The peasants who follow this pursuit in the alpine
+regions of Spain become fearless climbers: with their feet clad in
+_alparagatas_, or hemp-soled sandals, they traverse ridges and descend
+crags where nail-shod guide would falter. The first object is to get as
+high as possible. Then, crawling to the verge of some fearful abyss, the
+hunter commands the depths below, and, if he descry ibex, is enabled to
+approach without the warning of the wind. Should he see none, he
+imitates the shrill cry of the female, and not unfrequently a ram is
+thus betrayed by the whistle of love. The ibex-hunter must be provided
+with lungs of leather, a steady hand and eye, and untiring limbs.
+
+The best time for ibex-shooting is during July and August, when
+camping-out on the higher regions is practicable and even enjoyable. The
+snow-storms and frozen state of the snow render the winter-and
+spring-shooting both dangerous and uncertain.
+
+When ibex are known to be frequenting the lower valleys and chasms of
+the sierra, guns are concealed among the broken rocks in the higher
+regions commanding the ravines by which the _monteses_ are accustomed to
+ascend. Then the beaters enter from below, shots and unearthly yells
+disturb the timid animals, and slowly they ascend the mountain-side,
+listening ever and anon as they look down from some shelving ledge or
+giddy point. So slowly, indeed, do they sometimes come that the hunter
+may contemplate them for minutes before he can despatch his bullet. At
+some vital spot it must take effect or the trophy is lost. Such is the
+vital resistance of the wild-goat that unless killed outright he will
+manage to gain some inaccessible precipice, and there on a hanging ledge
+give up his life.
+
+
+CHAMOIS (_Antilope rupicapra_).
+
+Spanish: _Rebeco_, _Sario_.
+
+The stronghold of the chamois--the _Izard_ of the French hunters,
+_Rebeco_ of Cantabria, and _Sario_ in Arragon--is in the Pyrenees, and
+their western prolongation, the Cantabrian ranges of Santander, the
+Asturias, &c. They are specially abundant near the Picos de Europa. This
+animal is not found on any of the cordilleras of Central or Southern
+Spain. Mr. Packe's statement that he saw two on a misty morning in the
+Sierra Nevada probably arose from the similarity in size and form of the
+horns of the young or female ibex. Chamois inhabit only the loftiest,
+most wild and rocky mountain-summits, and are killed (usually with large
+shot) in big "_batidas_," or drives. How they manage to sustain life on
+these barren snow-clad heights _in winter_--since they never descend to
+the lower levels--passes understanding; but the case of the ibex is no
+less inexplicable.
+
+Lord Lilford writes:--In my opinion the chamois of the Pyrenees is very
+distinct from the chamois of Central Europe and Turkey.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+NOTE.--_Wild Sheep_:--It is somewhat remarkable that the moufflon, which
+is found as near as Corsica and Sardinia, should be entirely unknown in
+the Spanish cordilleras.
+
+
+BEAR (_Ursus arctos_).
+
+Spanish: _Oso_.
+
+There are in Spain two kinds of bear--it would, perhaps, be more correct
+to say two varieties--the large, dark-coloured beast, and the small
+brown bear, or _Hormiguero_ = ant-eater. The latter, which is not
+uncommon in the Asturias, feeds on roots, ants'-nests, honey, and
+such-like humble fare; while the big black bear, distinguished as
+_Carnicero_, preys on goats, sheep, pigs, &c., and even pulls down
+horned cattle.
+
+Bear-hunting is confined to the north--to the Pyrenees and the
+Cantabrian Highlands. A primitive method of pursuit survives in certain
+high-lying villages of the Asturias, where the mountaineers face Bruin,
+armed only with pike and knife. These men are associated in a sort of
+fraternal band, and the occupation passes from father to son. The
+_osero_, accompanied only by his dogs, seeks the bear amidst the
+recesses of the sierra, and engages him in single combat. His equipment
+consists of a broad-bladed hunting-knife and a double dagger, each of
+whose triangular blades fits into a central handle.
+
+By less vigorous sportsmen, bear-hunting is carried on by calling into
+requisition a large number of men and dogs--usually with the assistance
+of the _oseros_, and by the more discreet use of fire-arms, vice cold
+steel.
+
+The neighbourhood of Madrid was once described as "_buen monte de puerco
+y oso_" (good country for pig and bear), and the city itself as "_la
+coronada villa del oso y madrono_;" but bears no longer exist in either
+of the Castiles. The small _Hormiguero_ is confined to the Asturias: the
+larger beast is also fairly common there, and not rare in Navarre,
+Arragon, and, possibly, Catalonia.
+
+
+WILD BOAR (_Sus scrofa_).
+
+Spanish: _Javato_, _Javali_.
+
+The wild boar has always abounded in Spain, and its chase ever held a
+chief place among Spanish sports--in olden times on horseback with pike
+and lance. During the middle ages the pursuit of falconry took such hold
+upon the national taste, that the pigs were almost forgotten, and
+towards the close of the fifteenth century they became a positive
+scourge, devastating the crops and invading the outlying portions even
+of great cities. With the Renaissance came the application of science to
+sporting weapons; and, with gunpowder substituted for cold steel, the
+boar had a bad time of it; he was shot down as he rushed from his
+thicket-lair, or assassinated as he took his nocturnal rambles.
+
+In Estremadura the favourite _chasse au sanglier_ is still with horse
+and hound. During the stillness of a moonlight night, when the acorns
+are falling from the oaks in the magnificent Estremenian woods, a party
+of horsemen assemble to await the boars, which at night descend from the
+mountains to feed. Then a trained hound, termed the _maestro_, which
+throws tongue only to pig, is slipped: should he succeed in bringing a
+tusker to bay, a dozen strong dogs, half-bred mastiffs, are despatched
+to his assistance. Off they rush like demons, to the challenge of the
+_maestro_, followed by the horsemen, and there ensues a break-neck ride
+and a struggle with a grizzly tusker in the half-light, which are
+sufficiently exciting to make this sport a favourite with the
+_valientes_ of Estremadura.
+
+It is possible that, on the southern plains, pig-sticking might be
+attempted. The country is, however, very rough, much intercepted with
+cane-brakes and dense jungles of matted brushwood and briar.
+
+In the vast cane-brakes which fringe the Guadiana are found enormous
+boars, whose tusks, as they charge, resemble a white collar encircling
+the neck.
+
+We have noticed the young following their mothers as early as January.
+The piglings are at first pretty little beasts, yellowish-brown, striped
+longitudinally with black bars. In May we have observed the old sows and
+young associated into herds of twenty or more.
+
+
+WOLF (_Canis lupus_).
+
+Spanish: _Lobo_.
+
+These Ishmaelites of the animal-world, though common enough in all the
+wilder regions of Iberia, rarely present themselves as a mark for the
+rifle-ball. Many-fold more cunning than the fox, the wolf never--not for
+a single instant--forgets the risk of danger nor his human enemies. When
+aroused in a _monteria_, or mountain-drive, wolves come slowly forward,
+feeling their way like field-marshals in an enemy's country, and on
+reaching some strong crag or thicket, lie down, awaiting the arrival of
+the beaters, who must pass on one side, when the stealthy brute slinks
+back on the other.
+
+Wolves change their residence according to the season. In summer, when
+the peasants' goats and sheep are pastured on the hills, they inhabit
+the highest sierras; in winter, when the stock is removed to lower
+ground, there are the wolves also.
+
+In all parts of Spain, it is customary for herdsmen to remain in
+constant attendance on their flocks by day and night, to protect them
+from the ravages of wolves and other "beasts of the field." In parts of
+Southern Estremadura and in the Sierra Nevada, it is sometimes necessary
+to keep fires burning at night, and shots are also fired at intervals,
+to secure the flocks from attack. When encamped, in the neighbourhood of
+Almaden, some years ago, we used to hear the packs of wolves keep up a
+concert of unearthly howls the livelong night.
+
+Too cunning to fall either into trap or ambuscade, yet of late years the
+numbers of the Spanish wolf have been largely reduced by means of
+poison: they will, however, doubtless hold their own in Spain for
+centuries to come.
+
+Like the bear, the wolf is also divisible into two distinct breeds, or
+races. There is the large grey wolf (the common kind), and the _Lobo
+serrano_, or mountain-wolf, which is smaller, darker, and more rufous in
+colour.
+
+The following table shows the respective weights in English pounds (25
+to the _arroba_), of the two types of wolf, both of which are found in
+all parts of Spain:--
+
+ Males. Females.
+ Lobo grande 125 to 150 100 to 112 lbs.
+ Lobo serrano 75 " 90 60 " 75 "
+
+The gait of the wolf, when driven into the open, is a slow, slouching
+gallop; but he goes much faster than he appears to do. Well might the
+Lusitanian farmer tell Latouche, with an imitative gesture: "Corre,
+corre, corre; mas o diablo mesmo nao o apanhava"--"Slowly he bounds,
+bounds along; but the devil himself could not overtake him!"
+
+
+FOX (_Canis vulpes--var., melanogaster_).
+
+Spanish: _Zorro_.
+
+The Spanish foxes are all of the black-bellied species, or variety; but
+the majority lack the jet black underparts that distinguish Indian
+examples--being rather clouded, or marbled, than pure black. We have,
+however, shot one (in November) which was far more typically
+coloured--quite black below and on legs--than the average, which are
+generally greyer and more silvery than our British fox. A few show a
+white crescent on the breast. They run about 15 lbs. in weight, and 48
+inches in length.
+
+Foxes are not hunted in Spain except by the Calpe Hounds at Gibraltar.
+
+
+SPANISH LYNX (_Felis pardina_).
+
+Spanish: _Gato cierval_, _Lince_.
+
+This species is also peculiar to the Peninsula, and in the southern
+provinces may be called common, frequenting the wilder, scrub-covered
+wastes and wooded sierras, where it preys on hares, rabbits, and
+partridge. In the spring the large and powerful males are also
+destructive among the young red deer.
+
+The spotted lynx is the only species found in Spain, its range extending
+(though in decreasing abundance) to the Asturian ranges, and even, we
+believe, to the Pyrenees, where we have failed to find any evidence of
+the existence of the northern form (_Felis lynx_).
+
+The movements of lynx are most dignified, having rather the demeanour of
+the tiger than of the wild-cat: it advances with slow, stately stride
+and measured movements, standing at the full height of the long,
+powerful legs, and the head carried level with the back.
+
+Though its approach, _per se_, is absolutely noiseless, yet on a still
+day it is just possible for an ear attuned to distinguish anything
+differing from the ordinary sounds of the wilds, to detect a slight
+_crackling_--a rustle, as the dry cistus-twigs re-unite after being
+divided by the passage of the lynx's body.
+
+Its stealth preserves the lynx from falling readily into danger, and few
+are shot comparatively with their numbers in the wilder regions of
+Spain. When a lynx detects an ambuscade, there is an instant's
+cogitation ere the big cat bounds off. One moment, from the jungle, the
+great yellow eye meets one's own--that cruel, pretty face, full of hate
+and shy self-possession, set off by the bushy whiskers and tufted
+ears--then, like a yellow gleam, the beast disappears for ever in the
+thicket.
+
+On one occasion, in winter, while redleg-shooting, we noticed a
+commotion among some kites hovering at a certain spot. On going there,
+the writer came suddenly on a lynx which had killed a rabbit--a morsel
+doubtless coveted by the _milanos_. This lynx, though a rather small
+female, on being wounded with small shot, made a gallant effort to
+attack its aggressor.
+
+The country folk declare that there is no better meat than that of lynx;
+but then, it is true, they hold that otter is very good for the health,
+_muy saludable_; that bittern is _carne muy fina_, while the flesh of
+owls and hawks of all kinds possess medicinal properties, and with such
+remedies, various herbs and roots, bleeding, and other simple specifics,
+the rural Spaniard relies--perhaps with reason--on giving the _medico_ a
+wide berth. We have tried lynx, however, approaching the feast with
+perfectly open mind, and found it fairly good. The flesh was short in
+grain, white, and devoid of any unpleasant flavour. Without prejudice, a
+_guiso_ of lynx is as good as one of partridge or veal.
+
+Lynxes produce their young in April, often using the hollowed trunk of
+some cavernous cork-tree, or forming a sort of nest on the big branches
+for the purpose. We have reared the young lynxes from babyhood, and
+found them at least more docile than the fanatically furious wild-cats:
+but that is not saying much: for both are impregnated to the marrow with
+hate and treachery, and eventually these attempts to "civilize" the wild
+_felidae_ resulted in a tragic finale. For nearly a year we had kept a
+young female lynx (chained) in the garden: though often vicious and
+never reliable, she showed some slight "feline amenities"--purring and
+rubbing herself against one's leg, when petted, like a domestic tabby.
+But at length she perpetrated a terrible assault on a poor woman who
+chanced to pass near her kennel. The brute probably mistook her victim
+for the woman who daily brought it its food; and, seeing her pass by,
+with a sudden tremendous bound she broke her chain, and sprang upon the
+poor _lavandera's_ shoulders, tearing open her face with one claw, her
+breast with the other. Assistance was luckily at hand, and the savage
+brute, after a long chase, was killed. The poor woman was desperately
+hurt: for days her life was in danger, and for many weeks she was
+obliged to remain in bed under the doctor's care.
+
+The male lynxes are much larger and handsomer than the females, weighing
+some 42 to 50 lbs. The ground-colour of both is warm tawny-brown, but on
+the males the spots are fewer, larger, and more defined.
+
+
+WILD-CAT (_Felis catus_).
+
+Spanish: _Gato montes_, _Gato castellano_, or _romano_.
+
+As above remarked, the young wild-cats are quite the most ferocious and
+utterly untameable beasts of which we have had any experience; the
+mixture of fear and fury they exhibit in captivity is indescribable,
+even when only a few weeks old.
+
+Wild-cats are common throughout Spain wherever rabbits abound. In the
+sierras, they breed in crags and rabbit-burrows; on the plains the young
+are often produced in nests built in trees, or among the tall bamboos in
+the cane-brakes.
+
+Weight of an old tom 10-1/4 lbs., of a female 8-1/2 lbs. In some
+examples the fur of the underparts is of a warm tawny hue. The general
+colour of the wild-cat is a brindled grey, with black stripes.
+
+
+GENET (_Viverra genetta_).
+
+Spanish: _Gineta_.
+
+A beautiful beast, with clear grey fur, blotched with big black spots, a
+long tail, and a head more like a fox-terrier than a cat: common in all
+the southern provinces, and as far north as Old Castile; at La Granja,
+and in the provinces of Avila and Segovia. Not found (we believe) in
+Asturias or Santander.
+
+The genet lives in holes in rocks and crags, and in large woods. In
+winter, we have shot them when beating the sallows and cane-brakes for
+woodcock. It feeds on small rodents and young birds, occasionally, like
+the polecat, plundering hen-roosts, when it eats the brains of its
+numerous victims, and leaves the body untouched. In autumn, when the
+grapes are ripe, it is said to be very fond of a feast in the vineyards;
+but its principal food consists of mice and moles. It is considered a
+better _cazador_ than even the lynx, wily as a fox, and twisting as a
+snake.
+
+Our friend Manuel de la Torre killed three genets in Estremadura that
+were _entirely black_, and rather smaller than the average. One of these
+specimens is in the Madrid Museum.
+
+
+MARTEN (_Mustela foina_).
+
+Spanish: _Foina_, _Garduno_.
+
+Common in Andalucia, Estremadura, and Valencia: also observed in the
+Asturias and Santander. Only one kind of marten is found generally
+throughout Spain, but we have some reason to believe that the "_marta_"
+of the Pyrenees is the rarer pine-marten (_M. abietum_).
+
+
+POLECAT (_Mustela putorius_)--"_Turon._."
+
+OTTER (_Lutra vulgaris_)--"_Nutra_," or "_Nutria_."
+
+BADGER (_Meles taxus_)--"_Tejon._"
+
+All these are common in Andalucia, and generally throughout Spain.
+Though so strictly nocturnal in its habits, we have occasionally found
+the badger above-ground by day, in our _batidas_ in the Coto Donana,
+&c., and have dug out a brood of young as early as January 29th.
+
+
+WEASEL (_Mustela vulgaris_).
+
+Spanish: _Comadreja_, _Rojizo_.
+
+Not observed in Andalucia, but common in Provincia de Madrid, Old
+Castile; in the Sierra de Guadarrama, and in Estremadura and Arragon.
+
+
+MONGOOSE (_Herpestes widdringtoni_).
+
+Spanish: _Melon_.
+
+Common in the southern provinces, and as far north as the Sierra de
+Gredos (Old Castile). Ichneumons feed largely on snakes and other
+reptiles. They seldom offer a shot in the open, clinging tenaciously to
+the thickest covert, and are more often taken alive--either dug out of
+their burrows or caught by the dogs--than shot.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+Among minor quadrupeds may be mentioned the hedgehog (_Erizo_), the mole
+(_Topo_), the shrew (_Musarana_), squirrel (_Ardilla_), water-rat (_Rata
+de agua_), with the usual family-group of rats and mice. One
+particularly interesting species, the trumpeter water-shrew (_Mygale
+pyrenaica_), is found in the rivers of Guipuzcoa, Navarre, and, _fide_
+our friend Manuel de la Torre, in the Rio de Piedra, Provincia de
+Zaragoza.
+
+The dormouse (_Liron_), and fat dormouse (_Liron campestre_), are both
+common in Andalucia.
+
+The Spanish hare (_Lepus mediterraneus_), and rabbit require no further
+remark.
+
+
+
+
+PART II.
+
+SPRING-MIGRANTS TO SPAIN.
+
+WITH DATES OF ARRIVAL, ETC., IN ANDALUCIA.
+
+
+In the following list we endeavour to indicate the closest possible
+point of time for the arrival, nesting, and departure of spring-migrants
+to Spain, the dates especially referring to Andalucia. But since the
+passage of almost each species, though in many cases punctual to a day
+or two in commencing, continues during three or four weeks--and in some
+instances over much longer periods--it is only possible to approximate.
+Thus there is a distinct arrival of Swallows in February (early in March
+many already have eggs), yet the "through-transit" of vast
+bodies--destined perhaps to populate Lapland and Siberia--is conspicuous
+throughout April, and even into May.
+
+In compiling these lists the recorded observations of other naturalists
+have been freely utilized, especially the papers of Lord Lilford and Mr.
+Howard Saunders in the _Ibis_, and Col. Irby's "Ornithology of the
+Straits of Gibraltar." In ornithological matters the writer has a
+weakness for _dates_,[79] and the last-mentioned work fairly bristles
+with these valuable facts. For five springs its author maintained a
+careful watch on the Straits, and during those years hardly a movement
+of feathered fowl betwixt the Pillars of Hercules could escape his
+vigilance.
+
+
+LIST OF SPRING-MIGRANTS.
+
+ ---------------+--------------+-----------+--------------+------------------
+ | Arrives. | Nests. | Departs. | Remarks.
+ ---------------+--------------+-----------+--------------+------------------
+ | | | |
+ Egyptian | | | |
+ Vulture |End Feb.-Mar. |April 1-10 | Sept. |
+ Montagu's | | | |
+ Harrier | End Mar. | May 1-10 | Sept. |
+ Booted Eagle | Mar. 25 | April 10 | Sept. } | A few winter
+ Serpent Eagle | Mar. 8 | April 15 | Oct. } | near Malaga.
+ Black Kite | Mar. 10 | April 30 | Sept.-Oct. |
+ Honey Buzzard |End April-May |None breed |Sept. 17, '92 | In transit only.
+ Hobby | April | | Sept. | do.
+ Lesser Kestrel |End Feb.-Mar. | April 25 | Sept.-Oct. | Some winter.
+ Scop's Owl | Mid-Mar. | May 10 | Sept.-Oct. | do.
+ R. N. Nightjar | May 1 | May 25 | Sept.-Oct. |
+ Swift | Mar.-April | May | Sept.-Oct. |
+ Pallid Swift |End Mar.-April| do. | |
+ Alpine Swift | Mar. 25-Apl. | do. | Aug.-Sept. |
+ Roller |End Mar.-April| April 15 | Sept. |
+ Bee-Eater |End Mar.-April| May 15 | July-Aug. |
+ Hoopoe |End Feb.-April| May 1 | Aug.-Oct. |
+ Cuckoo |Mar. 25-April | April 23 | July-Aug. |
+ Spotted Cuckoo | Feb. 28-Mar. | April 15 | July-Aug. |
+ Wryneck | March | | Sept. |Breeds in Castile.
+ Ring-Ouzel{%} | | Few | |
+ | Mar.-April | breed{%} | Autumn | Transit.{%}
+ Rock-Thrush | End Mar.- | May |26 Sept., '68 |
+ | Apl.--early | (Arragon) | (Irby) |
+ Wheatear | Mar. 1-April |None breed | Oct.-Nov. | In transit.
+ Eared Wheatear |Mar. 30-April |May 10, '71| Autumn |
+ Russet | | | |
+ Wheatear |Mar. 30-April |May 12, '71| do. |
+ Whinchat |April 10, '83 |None breed | Sept. | Transit only.
+ Nightingale | April 8-15 |May 7, '83 | Aug.-Sept |
+ Redstart{%} |Mar. 25-April |None breed | Sept.-Oct. | Transit.
+ Garden Warbler | Mid-April | May 10 | Oct. |
+ Orphean | | | |
+ Warbler | Mid-April | May 15 | Sept. |
+ Whitethroat | April 10-20 | May 12 | Sept.-Oct. |
+ Spectacled | | | |
+ Warbler |Mar. 10 (Irby)| | |
+ Sub-alpine | | | |
+ Warbler | March (end) |May (early)| Oct. |
+ Bonelli's | | | |
+ Warbler | April-early | | Sept. |
+ Wood-Wren | April 25 | May 25 | Oct. | Scarce.
+ Willow-Wren | March | April 10 | | Many resident.
+ Chiffchaff | | April 20 | | do.
+ Yellow | | | |
+ Willow-Wren | April (end) | May 20 | Aug.-Sept. |
+ W. Pallid do. | May 1 | June 10 | Aug.-Sept. |
+ Rufous | | | |
+ Warbler | May 1 | May 28 | Sept. |
+ Savi's | | | |
+ Warbler. | March (?) | May 4 | Aug. (Irby) | Rare and local.
+ Great Sedge | | | |
+ Warbler | April | May 28 | |
+ Reed-Warbler | End March | May 5 | |
+ Pied | | None | |
+ Flycatcher{%%}| April 8-30 | breed[A] | Oct. 1-17 |
+ Spotted do. | May 10 | May 25 | Aug.-Sept. | In transit.
+ Swallow | Mid-Feb. to | | |
+ | May |Mar.-April | Sept.-Oct. |A few in winter.
+ Martin | February | | Sept.-Oct. |
+ Sand-Martin | Feb.-Mar. |May (H. S.)| Oct. |A few all winter.
+ Crag-Martin | Feb.-Mar. | April-May | Oct.-Nov. | Many in winter.
+ Woodchat | Mar.-April | May 10 | Sept.-Oct. |
+ G. H. Wagtail. | Feb.-Mar. | April 25 | Aug.-Sept. |
+ Tree Pipit | Mar.-April |None breed | Oct.-Nov. | In transit.
+ Tawny Pipit | April | | Aug. |Some breed, H. S.
+ Short-toed Lark| Mid-March | April 20 | Aug.-Sept. |
+ _C. | | | |
+ Batica_{%%} | ? | May 9 | ? | (Unknown).
+ Cirl-Bunting | Mar. | April 12 | Oct.-Nov. | Many resident.
+ Ortolan | April | May 5 | Sept. |
+ Serin | February | May 10 | Oct.-Nov. |
+ Golden Oriole | April 15-20 | May 20 | Aug.-Sept. |
+ Spotless | | | |
+ Starling | March | April 23 | Sept. |
+ Turtle-Dove | April-end | | Sept. (end) |
+ | May | May | Oct. |
+ Quail | Mar.-April | May | Sept. 15-30 |
+ | | | |
+ Landrail | Feb.-Mar. |None breed | Oct. | Many winter.
+ Purple | | | |
+ Gallinule | February | April 25 | Oct. | Many resident.
+ Stone-Curlew | Mar.-April | April 20 | Oct.-Nov. | Many resident.
+ Pratincole | April 8-20 | May 12 | Sept. |
+ Grey Plover | May |None breed | Nov. | On passage only.
+ Kentish Plover.| March | April 15 | | Many winter.
+ Lesser Ring | | | |
+ Plover | Mid-March | May 10 | |
+ Common | | None | |
+ Sandpiper{%%%}| April 15 | breed{%%%} | Aug.-Sept. |
+ Curlew | | | |
+ Sandpiper{$} | May |None breed | | Transit.
+ Knot | May 1-10 | do. | | do.
+ Wood-Sandpiper | April-May | do. | | do.
+ Greenshank | April-May | do. | Sept.-Oct. | A few winter.
+ Black-tailed | | | |
+ Godwit | Feb.-Mar. | do. | |
+ Bar-tailed do. | May | do. | Sept. |
+ Ruff | April-May | do. | Aug.-Sept. | Many winter.
+ Great Snipe | April-May | do. | Sept.-Oct. |
+ Whimbrel | May | do. | Sept.-Oct. |
+ Slender-billed | | | |
+ Curlew | Spring | do. | Autumn | A few winter.
+ Purple Heron | March 20 | April 10 | Sept. |
+ Little Egret | April-early | June 8 | Oct.-Nov. |
+ Buff-backed | | | |
+ Heron | Mar.-April | do. | |
+ Squacco do. | April 20 | do. | |
+ Little Bittern | April-end | do. | Sept. |
+ Night Heron | April-end | May 20 | |
+ Glossy Ibis | April 20 | May 28 | |
+ Spoonbill | April 10 |May (early)| | Observed in
+ | | (Irby) | | winter.
+ Crane | Feb.-Mar. | April 25 | Oct. | Many winter.
+ Demoiselle | | | |
+ Crane | Mar.-April | | Aug. |
+ Stork | Jan.-Feb. |March (end)| Sept. | Many winter.
+ Black Stork | Feb. to May | May | Nov. |
+ Marbled Duck. | April | May (end) | Sept. |
+ Garganey | Feb.-Mar. | do. | Sept. | Very irregular.
+ Nyroca Pochard | Feb.-Mar. | May 20 | Oct.-Nov. |
+ White-faced | | | |
+ Duck | Mar.-April. | May 20 | Oct.-Nov. |
+ Gull-billed | | | |
+ Tern | April 8 | May 25 | |
+ Lesser Tern | April 13 | May 25 |Oct. 25 (Irby)|
+ Whiskered | | | |
+ Tern | April 10 | May 20 |Aug. (Favier) |
+ Black Tern | May 1 | May 30 | Sept.-Oct. |
+ | | | (Favier) |
+ ---------------+--------------+-----------+--------------+------------------
+
+{%} Some Ring-Ouzels nest in Sierra Nevada--eggs received from Colmenar
+by H. S.--possibly also some Redstarts.
+
+{%%} Pied Flycatcher believed to breed in Castile (H. S.). _C. Batica_
+is perhaps resident.
+
+{%%%} The Sandpiper breeds in Castile and in Portugal, and a few pairs
+may possibly do so in Andalucia. The main transit occurs about April 15,
+coinciding with their arrival on the North British moorlands.
+
+{$} Many other congeneric species of the Plover and Sandpiper class,
+such as Sanderling, Little and Temminck's Stints, Purple Sandpiper, &c.,
+might also be included, passing north through Andalucia in millions at
+the same period; but many individuals also spend the autumn and winter
+there.
+
+
+
+
+PART III.
+
+SPRING-NOTES IN NAVARRE.
+
+BY ALFRED CRAWHALL CHAPMAN.
+
+
+The breeding-season in Navarre, owing probably to the high mean altitude
+of that province, appears to be relatively later than in other districts
+of similar latitude. In mid-April (1891) at St. Jean de Luz and Irun, we
+luxuriated in warm sunshine and the shade of leafy trees; but at
+Alsasua, on the afternoon of the 15th, we found ourselves transported to
+a region as cold and bleak as Northumbria, while at Pamplona, though the
+sun shone gratefully, his warmth was marred by a biting wind.
+
+A parched-looking, sterile country separates the capital of Navarre from
+Burguete, a small village on the Spanish slope of the Pyrenees just
+under the Roncesvalles Pass, whither we were bound. Outside Pamplona, a
+single polyglot, or icterine warbler was observed, together with the
+following other species:--redstarts, tree-pipits, woodchats, ortolans,
+goldfinch, linnets, yellow-hammers, and chaffinches; and on the road to
+Burguete were added:--griffon vultures--doubtless from
+Yrurzun--Bonelli's eagle, red kites, one marsh-harrier, hoopoes, black
+redstarts, white wagtails, bluethroat (white-spotted form), robin,
+willow-wren, swallow, ring-ouzel, stonechat, wheatear, calandra lark,
+buzzard, kestrel, and grey partridge.
+
+At Burguete, between April 17th and 21st, of raptores observed, with the
+exception of occasional kites, the buzzard was the commonest hawk, and
+already had eggs. Tawny owls had feathered young, but, beyond
+house-martins breeding in the crags, no other species appeared to have
+commenced to nest. In the beech woods around Burguete six species of
+tits were common, viz., the oxeye, blue, cole, marsh, long-tailed and
+crested. The last-named has a pretty rippling note, quite unique in its
+way. Nuthatches were numerous and clamorous, and green woodpeckers (?
+sp.) were noted. Amongst the box-scrub, fire-crests were common, with
+dippers and sandpipers on the streams; while, scattered about in the
+woods and hills, we came across wryneck, wren, white and yellow
+wagtails, pied and spotted flycatchers, turtle-and stock-doves, serin,
+gold-and bull-finches and carrion-crow. Above the Roncesvalles convent
+on April 20th, in a grey mist and drizzling rain, numbers of golden
+orioles, tree-pipits, skylarks, swallows, stock-doves and other common
+birds were picking their way northwards on migration; and a single
+spectacled warbler was obtained. This species has very active, sprightly
+movements, and a robin-like gait when hopping on the ground.
+
+On April 21st we journeyed, _via_ Orbaiceta, to a forest-guard's house
+in the great Iraty forest, observing _en route_ grey wagtails and
+choughs, Egyptian vultures and ravens, the latter nesting. The change
+from the beech woods of Burguete to the endless spruce-fir forests of
+Iraty proved disappointing. Doubtless _Picus martius_ breeds here, for
+we saw woodpeckers' holes which, from their size, could belong to no
+other species; but not a sight either of this bird or of the nutcracker
+rewarded our careful search. Bonelli's warbler, with its rather shrill,
+monosyllabic note, abounded wherever the nature of the ground suited its
+habits, but had not yet paired; nor could we ascertain that any other
+species were yet breeding. The hedge-sparrow here was of a noticeably
+paler cast of plumage than at home--perhaps explained by the altitude;
+while at Burguete, the chaffinches were visibly brighter in colour, and
+we also detected a striking difference in the song of yellow-hammer and
+some other species, as compared with English birds--possibly the
+mysterious beginnings of evolution. On the way back to Burguete, a
+sedge-warbler and a lovely specimen of the wall-creeper--the only one we
+saw--were obtained.
+
+During our six days' absence, a considerable influx of migrants had
+occurred at Burguete, as evidenced by increased numbers of pied
+flycatchers (mostly males), woodchats and black redstarts. Blue-headed
+wagtails (_M. neglecta_) were running on the grass about the horses'
+feet, and, though the bird has been given specific rank, reminded me
+strongly of _M. cinereocapilla_, which I knew well in Lapland in 1884.
+During a two hours' ramble before breakfast on April 25th, just before
+leaving for home, the following were observed:--sparrow-hawk, a pair of
+snipe, magpies and jays, one heron, a pale blue harrier and a golden
+eagle.
+
+Our short experience in Navarre is conspicuous more for what we did
+_not_ see than for what we did. Extensive forests, thickly-grown,
+without underwood, and in a mountainous region, are not favourable to
+bird-life. Such places lack rabbits for the raptores, and are deficient
+in insect-food for the warblers and other small species, while the
+absence of marshy ground explains that of aquatic birds. April is,
+however,--at any rate in such seasons as that of 1891--quite a month too
+early for ornithological research in Navarre.
+
+
+
+
+SUPPLEMENTAL NOTES ON BIRDS.
+
+(SOUTHERN SPAIN.)
+
+
+The following remarks relate to certain species which have come under
+our observation in Spain, but which have not been included in the
+text:--
+
+Black-winged Kite (_Elanus caeruleus_, Desfont).--Rare: a pair observed
+near San Lucar in April. The male fell to a long shot, but rose again
+and escaped.
+
+Sparrow-hawk (_Gavilan_).--Most numerous in winter, but some remain to
+breed.
+
+Merlin (_Esmerejon_).--In winter only.
+
+Lesser Kestrel (_Primilla_).--One of the commonest birds in spring and
+summer, nesting in swarms in the towns, on churches, &c., and on the
+ruined Moorish watch-towers.
+
+Osprey (_Aguila pescadora_).--Frequently observed on Guadalquivir and
+other large rivers: breeds.
+
+White Owl (_Lechuza_).--Abundant and resident.
+
+Brown Owl.--Scarce in south: one shot in December.
+
+Long-eared Owl (_Bujo_).--Rare in Andalucia: the young have been
+obtained near Granada. More plentiful in Castile and Biscay.
+
+Short-eared Owl (_Carabo_).--In winter: often very numerous. While
+partridge-shooting on the plains, we have noticed five or six on wing at
+once. _Asio capensis_ we have not met with.
+
+Kingfisher (_Martin pescador_).--Most numerous in winter: especially so
+in Portugal.
+
+Wryneck (_Torce-cuello_).--In wooded sierras--March.
+
+Mistle-Thrush (_Charla_).--Chiefly in winter, but breeds in higher
+sierras; have seen eggs taken near Tangier.
+
+Dipper (_Pechi-blanco_, _Tordo de agua_).--Resident on mountain-streams,
+but relatively scarce in the south.
+
+Hedge-Sparrow.--In garden at Jerez in January.
+
+Wren (_Ratilla_).--Common and resident; nests in sierras in March.
+
+Fire-crest.--In pine-woods; resident.
+
+Tree-Creeper (_Trepaironcos_).--Resident; nests in the wooded sierras in
+April. It is also known as _Aranero_, _i.e._, "spider-catcher," a name
+it shares with the Wall-Creeper, which species we have not observed.
+
+Nuthatch.--Common in Castile and the north, but not observed in
+Andalucia except in Sierra Nevada. This species is also known as
+_trepaironcos_.
+
+Crested Tit (_Capuchino_).--Observed in the mountain forests of Castile.
+Resident and common near Gibraltar.
+
+Sand-Martin.--Breeds on Guadalquivir--April.
+
+Woodlark.--In winter only; leaves in April. Not common. Our familiar
+Skylarks and Titlarks swarm in winter in Spain, but leave the south in
+March. The Calandra, Crested, and Short-toed Larks, with the
+Corn-Bunting, are among the most abundant of Spanish birds at all
+seasons.
+
+Rock-Bunting (_Emberiza cia_, Linn.).--Common in sierras, where it nests
+in April near clearings and cultivated patches.
+
+White Wagtail.--Arrives in swarms in September, remaining till March.
+The pied wagtail we have not identified.
+
+Grey Wagtail.--Common in winter, and some nest on the mountain streams,
+even in Andalucia.
+
+Serin.--This, with the goldfinch and three following species, the
+stonechats, bee-eaters, rufous, and black-headed warblers and
+nightingales, is among the commonest and most characteristic birds of
+Southern Spain.
+
+Linnet (_Camacho_).
+
+Greenfinch (_Verdon_).
+
+Chaffinch (_Pinzon_).--All common; most so in winter.
+
+Rock-Sparrow (_Gorrion montes_).--Common in the sierras, where it breeds
+in holes in May.
+
+Lesser Redpole.--Rare and irregular; in severe winters only. Many in
+garden at Jerez in January, 1888.
+
+Siskin (_Lugano_).--Irregular; in winter only. Several obtained in
+garden, March 15, 1891.
+
+Rook.--Occasional flocks in winter.
+
+Carrion Crow.--Rare; found a nest with five eggs, Sierra de las Cabras,
+March 23rd. B. is sure he has seen _C. corniz_ when shooting in
+winter.[80]
+
+Sandwich Tern.--Obtained on Guadalete in March and April on passage.
+
+Gannets and Skuas.--Observed in Straits and Bay of Trafalgar in winter
+and early spring.
+
+Red-throated Diver.--Several shot in winter.
+
+Shearwaters.--In Straits: observed in hundreds off Malaga in March.
+
+Stormy Petrels.--Common on the coast, and probably breeds on some of the
+rocky islands.
+
+[Illustration: STORK'S NEST ON STRAW-STACK.]
+
+
+
+
+GLOSSARY.
+
+
+ _A boca de jarro_--At short range.
+
+ _Abolaga_--Spanish gorse.
+
+ _Aficionado_--An amateur, enthusiast.
+
+ _Alcornoque_--Cork-oak.
+
+ _Alforjas_--Holsters, saddle-bags.
+
+ _Almuerzo_--Breakfast, tiffin.
+
+ _Alparagatas_--Hempen-soled sandals.
+
+ _Anafe_--A charcoal cooking-stove.
+
+ _Arenal_--Sand-waste, desert.
+
+ _Armajo_--Samphire.
+
+ _Arramago_--Charlock.
+
+ _Arroyo_--Stream, watercourse.
+
+
+ _Bandada_--A flock, or pack.
+
+ _Bandolerismo_--Brigandage.
+
+ _Barbon_, _barbudo_--Bearded.
+
+ _Barranco_--A low cliff.
+
+ _Barrio_--Quarter of a town, suburb.
+
+ _Batida_--A beat, or drive for game.
+
+ _Bebidero_--A drinking-place.
+
+ _Boracha_--A wine-skin.
+
+ _Borrico_--A donkey.
+
+ _Busne_--A gentile--_i.e._, not a gypsy.
+
+
+ _Cabestro_, or _cabreste_--Decoy, stalking horse.
+
+ _Cama_--Bed, lair of wild beast.
+
+ _Camino_--Road.
+
+ _Campo_, _campina_--Country, cultivated land.
+
+ _Cancho_--Crag, precipice.
+
+ _Cantaro_--Water-jar.
+
+ _Carabinero_--Carbineer, exciseman.
+
+ _Carbonero_--Charcoal-burner.
+
+ _Casuela_--Stewing-pan, also the stew.
+
+ _Catre_--Tressle-bed, camp-bed.
+
+ _Cazador_--Shooter, sportsman.
+
+ _Caza mayor_--_menor_--Large, and small game.
+
+ _Cedula de vecindad_--Certificate of identity.
+
+ _Cencerro_--Cattle-bell.
+
+ _Cerrones_--Panniers, mule-packs.
+
+ _Chambonada_--Bungle.
+
+ _Chaparro_--An evergreen oak.
+
+ _Choza_--Peasant's cot or hut.
+
+ _Cicada_--Cricket.
+
+ _Cochino_--Pig.
+
+ _Contrabandista_--Smuggler.
+
+ _Corral_--enclosure; belt of forest or jungle.
+
+ _Coto_--Game-preserve.
+
+ _Cuadrilla_--Troop, gang.
+
+
+ _Dehesa_--Grazing ground, sheep-walk.
+
+ _Despoblado_--Desert, waste.
+
+ _Dicho_--Declaration, troth.
+
+ _Dormidero_--Sleeping-place.
+
+
+ _Echando la rueda_--"Making a wheel"--_i.e._, describing a circle.
+
+ _Encierro_--Driving in bulls to the ring.
+
+ _Entrada_--Entry, immigration.
+
+ _Era_--Threshing-ground.
+
+ _Errate_--"Black blood" (gypsy).
+
+ _Escopeta_--Musket, gun.
+
+ _Espada_--Sword; a matador.
+
+
+ _Falucha_--Felucca-rigged boat.
+
+ _Faja_--Waistband.
+
+ _Fango_--Mud.
+
+ _Funda_--Saddle-sling for gun.
+
+
+ _Garganta_--Mountain-gully.
+
+ _Garrocha_--Long wooden lance.
+
+ _Gazpacho_--A dish of bread, vegetables, oil, vinegar, &c., a
+ salad.
+
+ _Guiso_--Stew.
+
+
+ _Huerta_--Orchard, garden.
+
+
+ _Jaca_--Riding horse, pony.
+
+ _Junco_, _juncale_--Reed, reed-bed.
+
+
+ _Ladron en grande_--Robber on a large scale.
+
+ _Lancha_--Small boat, punt.
+
+ _Lidia_, _lidiador_--Fight, fighter (of bulls).
+
+
+ _Macho_--Male.
+
+ _Majo_--Dandy, gallant.
+
+ _Malaguena_--Couplet, topical song.
+
+ _Mancha_--Thicket, jungle.
+
+ _Manchon_--Fallow.
+
+ _Mano negra_--"Black Hand," a secret society.
+
+ _Manta_--Cloak, saddle-rug.
+
+ _Marisma_--Marsh land.
+
+ _Monteria_--Mountain-shooting campaign.
+
+ _Mosca_--Fly.
+
+
+ _Nata_--Cream.
+
+ _Navaja_--Clasp-knife.
+
+ _Novio_-_a_--Sweetheart.
+
+
+ _Ojeo_--Drive (for game).
+
+ _Olivar_--Olive-grove.
+
+ _Olla_--Earthen cooking-pot, stew.
+
+
+ _Pajaraco_--Large bird, vulture.
+
+ _Pajarera_--Breeding-place of birds.
+
+ _Parador_--Inn, resting-place.
+
+ _Patero_--Duck-shooter.
+
+ _Patio_--Courtyard of house.
+
+ _Pinal_--Pine forest.
+
+ _Piorno_--A species of broom.
+
+ _Podenco_--Hunting-dog (of lurcher type).
+
+ _Poniente_--West wind.
+
+ _Posada_--Village inn, lodging-house.
+
+ _Puchero_--Earthen pan for cooking.
+
+ _Pueblo_--_cito_--Village, hamlet.
+
+ _Puesto_--Post, ambush.
+
+
+ _Querencia_--Haunt.
+
+
+ _Rastro_--Trail, spoor.
+
+ _Reclamo_--Decoy, call-bird.
+
+ _Retamo_--A species of broom.
+
+ _Rincon_--Corner.
+
+ _Rodeo_--"Rounding-up" of cattle.
+
+
+ _Sarten_--Frying-pan.
+
+ _Sequestrador_--Bandit who holds to ransom.
+
+ _Serrano_--Mountaineer.
+
+ _Suerte_--(1) Luck; (2) the modes of attack or "passes" in the
+ bull-fight.
+
+
+ _Tentadero_--Trial (of young bulls).
+
+ _Tirador_--Gunner.
+
+ _Toreo_--Art of bull-fighting.
+
+ _Toril_--Lair of bull, adjoining bull-ring.
+
+ _Toro bravo_--Fighting bull.
+
+ _Tunante_--Cunning rogue.
+
+
+ _Vega_--Open plain.
+
+ _Venta_--Wine-shop.
+
+ _Vereda_--Bridle-path.
+
+
+ _Zincali_--Gypsy.
+
+[Illustration: SPANISH SPADES.]
+
+
+
+
+INDEX.
+
+
+Absence of twilight, 403, 409
+
+Adventure with a bull, 10
+
+---- Lynx, 355-6, 447
+
+AEsthetic tastes in birds (?), 112 _et seq._
+
+Agriculture, Chap. xviii., p. 220, xix., p. 231, 294-5-6
+
+Ague, 108
+
+Alpine Accentor, 147
+
+---- Chough, 147, 154 (footnote)
+
+---- Pipit, 147, 155
+
+---- Swift, 154, 216, 247, 254, 451
+
+Altitudes of mountains, 26, 143, 153 (footnote), 159, 168, 179
+
+Alto Douro, 329 _et seq._
+
+Andalucian Quail, 353, 420
+
+Anomalies, Spanish, 151
+
+Ants, 244, 245
+
+Arctic weather in Spain, 392 _et seq._
+
+Asturias, The, 3, 183, 184 _et seq._, 307, 442
+
+Atmospheric effects, 89
+
+Avocet, 75, 77, 84, 86 (breeding), 381, 399
+
+Azure-winged Magpie, 80, 252, 256-7-8
+
+
+Badger, 108, 250, 364, 449
+
+Balance of Life, 259 _et seq._, 264-5
+
+Basques, The, 5, 176
+
+Bear, 3, 179, 185, 442-3
+
+Bee-eater, 252, 254, 256, 261, 325, 451
+
+Bird-life in Gredos, 147, 154
+
+---- Bermeja, 160
+
+Bird-life in Navarre, 454 _et seq._
+
+Bittern, 80, 254, 272-3, 364, 423-4
+
+---- Little, 255, 271, 273, 427, 453
+
+Blackbird, 147, 249, 304
+
+Blackcap, 247, 349
+
+Black Chat, 147, 216, 299
+
+Black Kite, 82, 242-5, 265, 275, 451
+
+Black Vulture, 146 (breeding), 200 _et seq._
+
+Bleeding, Universal remedy, 305-6, 447
+
+Blue Rock-Thrush, 29, 147, 160, 210 (footnote), 216, 299
+
+Bluethroat, 147, 454
+
+Boar, Wild, Chap. ii., p. 23, Appendix, 443-4
+
+---- 84, 185, 270, 355, 368-9
+
+---- Obstinate nature of, 29, 369
+
+Bohemian Gypsies, 291-2
+
+Bonelli's Eagle, 160, 204, 217-18-19, 255, 454
+
+Booted Eagle, 81, 84, 160, 199, 204, 254, 265, 451
+
+Breeding-season (of birds) prolonged, 255
+
+Brigandage in Spain, Chap. x., pp. 116-127, 163
+
+Bull-fighting, Chap. v., p. 54
+
+---- Attempts to suppress, 58, 59
+
+---- Breeds of bulls, 60, 341
+
+---- _Encierro_, The, 65
+
+---- Life of a fighting-bull, 60-1
+
+---- Mediaeval bull-fights, 57-8
+
+---- Modern epoch, the, 59
+
+---- Origin of, 55-6
+
+Bull-fighting, _Tentaderos_, The, 61-4
+
+Bungles, magnificent, 362, 409
+
+Bunting, Cirl-, 147, 254, 452
+
+---- Corn-, 88, 147
+
+---- Ortolan, 88, 147, 254, 452, 454
+
+---- Reed-, 88
+
+---- Rock-, 458
+
+Burning the bamboo-brakes, 361 _et seq._
+
+Bustard, The Great, Chaps. iii., 33, iv., 40, xxx., 338, 254, 294
+
+---- -driving, 38, 46 _et seq._
+
+---- -shooting, at wells, 35
+
+---- ---- with lantern, 36
+
+---- ---- from cart, 37
+
+---- ---- single-handed, 42
+
+---- The Little, 255, 266, 294, 306, 343 _et seq._
+
+Butterflies, 148 (footnote), 212 (do.), 332, 352
+
+Buzzard, Common, 148, 181, 242, 262, 364, 409, 410, 454
+
+---- Honey, 254, 451
+
+
+Camels, Wild, Chap. viii., p. 94
+
+---- Repugnance towards horses, 99, 101
+
+Capercaillie, 3, 187
+
+Capileira, 168
+
+_Cazador_, The Spanish, 137, 177, 350
+
+Centipedes, 161, 332
+
+Civil Guards, The, 14, 152-3
+
+Chaffinch, 304, 454, 458
+
+Chamaeleon, 352 (footnote)
+
+Chamois, 3, 179, 185, 441-2
+
+Character, Iberian, 4, 6, 301, _etc._
+
+Charcoal-burners, 14, 124, 126
+
+Chicorro and the Black Bull, 289, 290
+
+Chiffchaff, 247, 452
+
+Chough, 147, 154, 171, 210, 301
+
+Climate, 24, 352, 371, 384, 392
+
+_Consumos_ (Octroi), 219, 228
+
+Coot, 77, 364, 424, 427
+
+Cork-oak, 16
+
+Cormorant, 74, 427
+
+Cost of a bull-fight, 67
+
+Coto Donana, 240, 348 _et seq._
+
+Country-life, hatred of, 1, 221, 224-5, 227
+
+Crag-Martin, 147, 155, 160, 210, 452
+
+Crake, Corn-, 253, 419, 424, 452
+
+---- Baillon's, 273, 424
+
+---- Little, 273, 424
+
+---- Spotted, 273, 364, 419, 424
+
+Crane, Common, 253, 266-7, 294, 306, 420-1, 427, 453
+
+---- Demoiselle, 254, 422, 453
+
+Crossbill, 246, 407
+
+Crow, Carrion-, 455, 458
+
+---- Grey-backed, 458
+
+Cuckoo, Common, 254, 257, 451
+
+---- Great Spotted, 80, 246, 253, 256-7, 451
+
+Curlew, 380, 388
+
+---- -Sandpiper, 76, 89
+
+---- Slender-billed, 453
+
+Cushat, 160, 253, 301, 419
+
+
+Dabchick, 270, 424, 427
+
+Dancing, 20-1, 313, 356-7
+
+Dartford Warbler, 147, 304
+
+Deer, Red, 249, 350 _et seq._ 437-8
+
+---- Fallow, 438-9
+
+---- Roe-, 28, 161, 216, 303, 439-40
+
+---- -shooting, 355, 359 _et seq._ 367, 405 _et seq._, 438 _et
+seq._
+
+Difficulties of travel, 9, 72, 161
+
+Dipper, 174, 455, 457
+
+Discontent, Agrarian, 12, 212, 227, 327
+
+Disease and epidemic, 313
+
+Donana, Coto de, 240, 348 _et seq._
+
+Dormouse, 147, 449
+
+Drunkenness, Rarity of, 313
+
+Ducks, _see also_ under Pochard Teal, Wigeon, &c.
+
+---- Gadwall, 267-8, 376, 392, 402, 425
+
+---- Garganey, 73, 77, 253, 268, 376, 392, 402, 425, 453
+
+---- Mallard, 73, 77, 267-8, 375, 402, 425-6
+
+Ducks, Marbled, 77, 84, 254, 269, 376, 392, 425, 426, 453
+
+---- Pintail, 73, 269, 373, 375-6, 402, 425
+
+---- Red-crested, 267, 376
+
+---- Scoter, 74, 425
+
+---- Sheld-, 376, 392, 425-6
+
+---- Shoveller, 73, 269, 374-5, 402, 425
+
+---- Teal, 73, 264, 268, 375, 401, 425
+
+---- Tufted, 74, 375, 425
+
+---- White-eyed, 73, 254, 268, 375, 392, 425, 453
+
+---- White-faced, 77, 254, 269-70, 376, 402, 425, 453
+
+---- Wigeon, 73, 253, 373, 375, 402, 425
+
+Dunlin, 73 (breeding), 75, 88, 381
+
+
+Eagle, Bonelli's, 160, 204, 217-19, 255, 454
+
+---- Booted, 81, 84, 160, 199, 204, 254, 265, 451
+
+---- Golden, 154, 160, 204, 212, 215, 218-19, 306, 309
+
+---- Imperial, 188 _et seq._, 204, 262-3, 275
+
+---- Sea-, _or_ White-tailed, 199
+
+---- Serpent-, 199, 204, 215, 241-2, 253, 262, 265, 451
+
+---- Tawny, 194 _et seq._, 410
+
+---- -shooting, 192, 239
+
+Eagles in confinement, 203
+
+---- Prey of, 264-5
+
+Eagle-Owl, 24, 210, 255, 301
+
+Eggs, small numbers laid, 249
+
+Egret, 76, 254, 271, 273, 392, 427, 453
+
+Egyptian Vulture, 147, 203, 211-12, 253, 333, 451
+
+_Encierro_, 65
+
+Escape, Narrow, 439
+
+Estremadura, 132, 240, 301, 443, 444
+
+
+Fairs in Spain, 151
+
+Falcon, Eleanora, 265
+
+Falcon, Peregrine, 154, 160, 265, 353 (Southern)
+
+Fallows and flowers, 225
+
+Fantail Warbler, 246, 268-9
+
+Fire-Crest, 407, 455, 458
+
+Fire-flies and Glow-worms, 332
+
+Fishermen, Spanish, 177
+
+_Flamenco_-ism, 67 (footnote), 288-9
+
+Flamingoes, Among the, Chap. ix., p. 102
+
+---- 74, 109 (breeding), 112 (young), 255, 381
+
+---- -shooting, 105
+
+Flight-shooting, 356, 358, 375, 386 _et seq._, 421 (Crane)
+
+Flycatcher, Pied, 247, 452, 455
+
+---- Spotted, 249, 255, 452, 455
+
+Food of raptores, 264-5
+
+Fox, 29, 100, 108, 332, 369, 445
+
+Frogs, 251, 276
+
+---- Tree-, 332
+
+_Fueros_, of Basques, 5
+
+
+Gadwall, 267-8, 376, 392, 425, 453
+
+Galicians, The, 4, 329, 330
+
+Gannet, 459
+
+Garganey, 73, 77, 253, 268, 376, 392, 399, 425, 453
+
+Gecko, 352 (footnote)
+
+Geese, Wild, 73, 376 _et seq._, 379, 388 _et seq._, 425, 427
+
+---- Bean, 379, 425
+
+---- Grey Lag, 377, 379, 425, 427
+
+---- Lesser White-fronted, 379
+
+Genet, 108, 250, 364, 407, 448
+
+Glossy Ibis, 76, 254, 269, 271, 427, 453
+
+Godwit, Bar-tailed, 75, 427, 453
+
+---- Black-tailed, 75, 254, 453
+
+Golden Eagle, 154, 160, 204, 212, 215, 218-19, 306, 309
+
+---- Oriole, 80, 247-8, 252, 254, 452, 455
+
+---- Plover, 253, 266, 381
+
+Goldfinch, 84, 205, 249, 294, 454
+
+Goose--_see_ Geese
+
+Goshawk, 160, 253
+
+Granada, 166, 173
+
+Grapes, Abundance of, 331, 336
+
+Great Bustard--_see_ Bustard
+
+---- Spotted Cuckoo, 80, 246, 253, 256-7
+
+---- Spotted Woodpecker, 160, 253
+
+---- Tit, 160, 249, 454
+
+Green Sandpiper, 76, 275, 381, 399
+
+Greenshank, 76, 85, 381, 453
+
+Green Woodpecker, 247-8, 253, 256, 262-3, 455
+
+Grebe, Eared, 77, 398, 424, 427
+
+---- Great Crested, 270, 424, 427
+
+---- Little, 270, 424, 427
+
+Grey Lag, 377, 379, 425, 427
+
+---- Phalarope, 76, 89
+
+---- Plover, 76, 89, 452
+
+Griffon Vulture, 29, 160, 205 _et seq._, 215-16, 294-96, 302, 454
+
+Gull, Black-headed, 90, 91
+
+---- Brown-headed, 78, 254
+
+---- Great Black-backed, 78
+
+---- Herring, 78
+
+---- Kittiwake, 78
+
+---- Lesser Black-backed, 78
+
+---- Little, 78, 398, 427
+
+---- Skua, 459
+
+---- Slender-billed, 90, 91
+
+Gypsies, Chaps, xxiii., p. 277; xxiv., p. 287
+
+
+Hare, Spanish, 353, 449
+
+Harrier, Hen-, 80, 254, 294, 381
+
+---- Marsh-, 77, 85, 92, 262, 264, 268-9, 275, 364, 381, 401-2
+
+---- Montagu's, 89, 92, 254, 262, 264, 275, 451
+
+Harvest, 225
+
+Hawfinch, 160, 246, 407, 409
+
+Hay, 226
+
+Hazel-Grouse, 3, 187
+
+Hen-Harrier--_see_ Harrier
+
+Herdsmen of Sierra, 16, 25, 295, 301, 317 (note), 320 _et seq._
+
+Herons, 76, 81, 84, 271 _et seq._, 381, 427
+
+---- Buff-backed, 76, 81, 254, 271-3, 453
+
+Herons, Night-, 76, 81, 254, 271-3, 427, 453
+
+---- Purple, 76, 78, 82, 253, 399, 453
+
+---- Squacco, 76, 81, 255, 271, 273, 453
+
+Hobby, 254, 451
+
+Honey Buzzard, 254, 451
+
+Hoopoe, 80, 246, 249, 253, 451, 454
+
+Horse-breeding, 233-4
+
+
+Ibex, Spanish, Chap, xi., p. 128; Appendix, 440-1
+
+---- Distribution, 131-2
+
+---- Scenting powers, 146 (note), 316
+
+---- Specific distinction, 128-9
+
+Ibex-shooting, Sierra de Gredos, 140 _et seq._
+
+---- Nevada and Alpujarras, 166
+
+---- Riscos de Valderejo, 150
+
+---- Sierra Bermeja, 157
+
+Ibex-stalking, 148, 165, 316 _et seq._
+
+Ibis, Glossy, 76, 254, 269, 271, 427, 453
+
+Ichneumon, Spanish, 28, 108, 250, 299, 449
+
+Imperial Eagle, 188 _et seq._, 204, 262-3, 275
+
+Industry of peasantry, 169, 311
+
+Insect-life, 148 (note), 161, 212 (note), 259, 332, 352
+
+
+Jackdaw, 253
+
+Janda, Lagunas de, 266, 299, 421
+
+Jay, 160, 258, 301, 456
+
+Justice, Judicial, 11 (footnote), 125, 370
+
+---- Summary, 247-8, 370-1
+
+
+Kentish Plover, 75, 88, 253, 381, 452
+
+Kestrel, 205, 265, 294
+
+---- Lesser, 253, 265, 451, 457
+
+Kingfisher, 457
+
+Kite, Black, 82, 242-3, 244-5, 265, 275, 451
+
+---- Black-winged, 457
+
+Kite, Red, 242-5, 252, 262, 264-5, 275, 366, 409, 454
+
+Knot, 76, 85, 453
+
+
+Lammergeyer, 160, 255, 293 _et seq._, 307 _et seq._
+
+Landrail, 253, 419, 424, 452
+
+Lanjaron, 167
+
+Lark, Calandra, 88, 454, 458
+
+---- Crested, 88, 458
+
+---- Short-toed, 88, 253, 452, 458
+
+---- Sky-, 147, 174, 254, 458
+
+---- Wood-, 458
+
+Leeches, 80, 81, 82, 367
+
+Leon, 5, 151, 183
+
+Lesser Kestrel, 253, 265, 451, 457
+
+Lesser Ring-Plover, 75, 88, 452
+
+Linnet, Grey, and Green, 249, 304
+
+Little Bustard, 255, 266, 294, 306, 343 _et seq._
+
+Lizards, 260, 261, 352
+
+Logrono, Sack of, 283
+
+Lunatic, Sad episode of a, 27
+
+Lynx, Spanish, 106, 250, 355, 359, 436, 446-7
+
+---- ferocity of, 355-6, 446-7
+
+
+Magpie, Common, 253, 256-8, 456
+
+---- Azure-winged, 80, 252, 256-8
+
+Mallard, 73, 77, 267-8, 375, 425, 426
+
+Marbled Duck, 77, 84, 254, 269, 376, 392, 425, 453
+
+Marismas, The, Chaps, vi., vii., pp. 70-93, 94 _et seq._, 103 _et seq._
+
+Markets, fruit, &c., 235
+
+Marriage-customs, 320 _et seq._
+
+Marsh-Harrier, 77, 85, 92 (breeding), 262, 264, 268-9, 275, 364, 381,
+401-2
+
+Marten, 185, 448
+
+Martin, Crag, 147, 155, 160, 210, 452
+
+---- House, 452, 454
+
+---- Sand, 452, 458
+
+Measurements of horns (deer), 361, 437-8 (ibex), 130, 147, 156, 319
+
+Mediterranean Black-headed Gull, 90, 91
+
+Merganser, 425
+
+Merlin, 457
+
+Migration, 72 and 89 (vernal), 253 _et seq._, 274, 384, 393-4
+
+Mills, Table of, 237
+
+Mirage, 78, 90
+
+Mole-cricket, 249, 270, 276, 332
+
+Mongoose, 28, 108, 250, 299, 363, 449
+
+Montagu's Harrier, 89, 92 (breeding), 254, 262, 264, 275, 451
+
+Moufflon, 442
+
+Mouse, 342, 363, 449; Dormouse, 147, 449
+
+
+Navarre, Bird-life in, 454 _et seq._
+
+Nightingale, 84, 205, 211, 249, 254, 451
+
+Nightjar, Common, 264
+
+---- Red-necked, 247, 254, 276, 451
+
+Nutcracker, 455
+
+Nuthatch, 147, 454, 458
+
+
+Olive, Culture of, 231
+
+Orange harvest, 305
+
+Origin of Spanish people, 4
+
+Oriole, Golden, 80, 84, 247-8, 252, 254, 452, 455
+
+Ortolan, 88, 147, 254, 452, 454
+
+Osprey, 457
+
+Otter, 364, 449
+
+Owl, Eagle-, 24, 210, 255, 301
+
+---- Brown, 454, 457
+
+---- Little, 247-8, 253, 264, 276
+
+---- Long-eared, 457
+
+---- Scop's, 253, 276, 451
+
+---- Short-eared, 457
+
+---- White, 251, 457
+
+Oyster-catcher, 392
+
+
+Paradox gun, 361, 415 (footnote)
+
+Partridge, Grey, 187, 454
+
+---- Red-leg, 29, 252, 304, 331
+
+---- -shooting (Portugal), 332
+
+---- ---- (Spain), 304, 351 _et seq._
+
+Peewit, 76, 88, 294, 304, 380
+
+Peregrine, 154, 160, 265, 353 (Southern)
+
+Petrel, Stormy, 459
+
+Phalarope, Grey, 76, 89
+
+Pintail, 73, 269, 373, 375, 376, 425, 426
+
+Pintailed Sand-Grouse, 85, 89, 381, 432
+
+Pipit, Meadow, 147, 254, 458
+
+---- Tawny, 452
+
+---- Tree-, 452, 454-5
+
+Ploughing, 225
+
+Plover, Golden, 253, 266, 381
+
+---- Grey, 76, 89, 453
+
+---- Kentish, 75, 88, 253, 381, 452
+
+---- Lesser Ring-, 75, 88, 253, 452
+
+---- Ring-, 89
+
+---- Stone-, 262, 351, 452
+
+Poacher caught, 369-70
+
+Pochard, common, 73-4, 375, 392, 425
+
+---- Red-crested, 267, 376
+
+---- White-eyed, 73, 254, 268, 375, 392, 425, 453
+
+_Podencos_ (hunting dogs), 26, 100
+
+Polecat, 449
+
+Portugal, Alto Douro, 329 _et seq._
+
+---- Insect life in, 332
+
+---- Partridge-shooting, 331-2
+
+---- Quail, 419-20
+
+---- Snipe-shooting, 417, 423
+
+---- Trout-fishing, 175
+
+---- Viticulture in, 329 _et seq._
+
+_Posada_, 19 _et seq._, 80, 296-7, 305, 312
+
+Pratincole, 76, 91 (breeding), 254, 276, 427, 452
+
+Ptarmigan, 3, 147, 187
+
+
+Quail, 205, 266, 341, 419, 452
+
+---- Andalucian, 353, 420
+
+
+Rail, Land-, 253, 419, 424, 452
+
+---- Water-, 273, 419, 424, 427
+
+Rainbow, Circular, 171
+
+"Rare birds," 72, 238
+
+Rats (land-, and water-), 342, 363, 449
+
+Raven, 147, 160, 171, 181, 243-4, 409-10, 458 (footnote)
+
+_Reclamos_ (call-birds), 304
+
+Red-leg Partridge, 29, 252, 304, 331, 351
+
+Redpole, 458
+
+Redshank, 75, 88, 381, 399
+
+Redstart, 147, 160, 247, 451, 454
+
+---- Black, 247, 454
+
+Redwing, 300, 304
+
+Reptiles, 79, 259, 260 _et seq._, 352 (footnote)
+
+Revolution, 12, 212-13, 227-8, 327
+
+Ring-Ouzel, 147, 171, 254, 451, 454
+
+Ring-Plover, 89
+
+Roads in Spain, 10, 151, 294
+
+Robin, 247, 304, 454
+
+Rock-Thrush, 147, 254, 451
+
+Roe-Deer, 28, 161, 216, 303, 439-40
+
+Roller, 80, 82, 249, 252, 254, 256, 451
+
+Rook, 458
+
+"Rough times," 79, 103, 109, 168, 304
+
+Ruff, 76, 254, 399, 453
+
+
+Salmon, 176
+
+Sanderling, 76, 453 (note)
+
+Sand-Grouse, Black-bellied, 86
+
+---- Pintailed, 85, 89, 381, 432
+
+Sand-hills of Donana, 245, 367
+
+Sandpiper, Common, 76, 88, 147, 174, 181, 453, 455
+
+---- Curlew-, 76, 89, 453
+
+---- Green, 76, 275, 381, 399
+
+---- Wood-, 275, 453
+
+Santander, 179
+
+Scenes described, 89, 100, 159
+
+Scorpion, 161, 332
+
+Scoter, 74, 425
+
+Sea-Eagle, 199
+
+Serin-Finch, 84, 205, 249, 455, 458
+
+Serpent-Eagle, 199, 204, 215, 241-2, 253, 262, 265, 451
+
+Shearwater, 459
+
+Sheep, 151, 234
+
+---- Wild, 442
+
+Sheld-duck, 376, 392, 394, 425
+
+---- Ruddy, 376, 392, 426
+
+Short-toed Lark, 88, 253, 452
+
+Shoveller, 73, 269, 374-5, 425
+
+Shrew, 449
+
+---- Trumpeter, 449
+
+Shrike, Redbacked, 80
+
+---- Southern Grey, 80, 246, 253, 256, 294
+
+---- Woodchat, 84, 246, 249, 254, 256, 452, 454
+
+Siskin, 458
+
+Skylark, 147, 174, 254, 455
+
+Slender-billed Gull, 90-1
+
+Smell, Sense of (ibex), 146 (note), 316 (deer), 405
+
+Smugglers, 12, 14, 120-1, 163, 214
+
+Snakes, 79, 260, 261-2
+
+Snipe, 254, 380, 392, 417 _et seq._, 427
+
+---- -shooting, 417 _et seq._
+
+---- Great, 453
+
+Sparrow-Hawk, 160, 456, 457
+
+---- Hedge-, 455, 457
+
+---- Rock-, 458
+
+---- Spanish, 244
+
+Spoonbill, 76, 84, 271, 399, 426, 453
+
+Starling, 254
+
+---- Spotless, 249, 253-4, 452
+
+"Still-hunting," 359, 364, 428 _et seq._
+
+Stilt, 75, 84, 86 (breeding), 88, 381, 392, 398
+
+Stint, Little and Temminck's, 453 (note)
+
+Stonechat, 147, 257, 454
+
+Stone-Curlew, 262, 351, 453
+
+Stone-Pine, 245
+
+Stork, Black, 253, 423, 453
+
+---- White, 84, 210, 381, 399, 423, 453
+
+Sunstroke, 73, 306
+
+Swallow, 247, 253, 255, 451-2
+
+Swans, Wild, 279, 426
+
+Swift, Alpine, 154, 216, 247, 254, 451
+
+---- Common, 205, 254, 451
+
+---- Pallid, 451
+
+
+Teal, 73, 264, 268, 375, 401, 424
+
+_Tentadero_, 61
+
+Terns, 76, 276, 427, 453, 459
+
+---- Black, 92, 255, 273, 453
+
+---- Gull-billed, 93, 273, 453
+
+---- Lesser, 93, 254, 273, 453
+
+---- Whiskered, 92, 254, 273, 453
+
+---- White-winged Black, 267
+
+Theories, Danger of, 114
+
+Threshing (corn), 226
+
+Thrush, Blue, 29, 147, 160, 210 (note), 216, 299
+
+---- Common, 147, 254, 300, 304
+
+---- Mistle-, 457
+
+---- Rock-, 147, 254, 451
+
+Tit, Blue, 247, 249, 455
+
+---- Crested, 249, 455, 458
+
+---- Great, 160, 249, 455
+
+---- Various, 247, 455
+
+Titlark, 147, 254, 458
+
+Toads, Immense, 272
+
+Trapping birds of prey, 244, 252
+
+Travel, Incidents of, 10-12, 167-8, &c.
+
+Tree-Creeper, 247, 407, 458
+
+Trout, 171, 173 _et. seq._, 183 _et seq._, 296
+
+Tufted Duck, 74, 375, 425
+
+Turtle-Dove, 80, 253, 254, 452, 455
+
+Twilight, Absence of, 403, 409
+
+
+Unique Shot (at Bustard), 51
+
+
+Vegetation, Luxuriant, 83, 352
+
+Vernal bird-notes, 84, 205, 454
+
+Viticulture in Spain, 325 _et seq._, 333 _et seq._
+
+---- ---- Portugal, 329 _et seq._
+
+Vulture, Bearded--_see_ Lammergeyer
+
+---- Black, 146, 200 _et seq._
+
+---- Egyptian, 147, 206, 211-12, 268, 333, 451
+
+---- Griffon, 29, 160, 205 _et seq._, 215-16, 294-6, 302
+
+
+Wagtail, Grey, 458
+
+---- Grey-headed, 249, 452, 455
+
+---- White, 253, 454-5, 458
+
+---- Yellow, 455
+
+Wall-Creeper, 455, 458
+
+Warbler, Blackcap, 247, 249
+
+Warbler, Black-headed, 247, 249
+
+---- Bonelli's, 452, 455
+
+---- Cetti's, 247, 268
+
+---- Dartford, 147, 304
+
+---- Fantail, 247, 268-9
+
+---- Garden-, 249, 254, 451
+
+---- Great Sedge-, 247, 254, 268, 451
+
+---- Melodious W., 84, 249, 255, 268, 452, 454
+
+---- Orphean, 84, 247, 254, 451
+
+---- Pallid, 255, 451
+
+---- Reed-, 268, 452
+
+---- Rufous, 247, 249, 254, 452
+
+---- Savi's, 254, 452
+
+---- Spectacled, 254, 451, 455
+
+---- Sub-alpine, 254, 452
+
+---- Willow-, 247, 249, 452
+
+---- Wood-, 452
+
+Water, a national drink, 222
+
+Water-beetles, 427
+
+Water-hen, 424
+
+---- Purple, 424, 427, 452
+
+Water-Rail, 273, 419, 424, 427
+
+Water-Shrew, Trumpeter, 449
+
+Weasel, 449
+
+Wheatear, Common, 253, 451, 454
+
+---- Eared, 147, 254, 451
+
+---- Russet, 147, 254, 451
+
+Whimbrel, 76, 255, 427, 453
+
+Whinchat, 181, 451
+
+White-eyed Duck, 73, 254, 268, 375, 392, 425, 453
+
+White-faced Duck, 77, 254, 269-70, 376, 424, 426, 453
+
+Whitethroat, 249, 254, 451
+
+Wigeon, 73, 253, 373, 375, 402, 425
+
+Wild Cat, 84, 108, 250, 362, 447-8
+
+Wild Sheep, 442
+
+Wildfowl, Variety of, 365, 383, 388, 398-9, 402
+
+---- Heavy shots at, 366, 374, 382, 403, 404
+
+Wildfowling, 356, 358, 365, 371 _et seq._, 384, 395 _et seq._
+
+---- with _cabrestos_, 365, 372
+
+---- ---- stanchion-gun, 395 _et seq._
+
+Wine, 24, 245, 332, 334-7
+
+Winter in Spain, 352, 371, 384, 392, 395, 428
+
+Wolf, 153, 167, 313-14, 332, 444-5
+
+Woodchat, 84, 246, 249, 254, 256, 452, 454
+
+Woodcock, 253, 419
+
+Woodpecker, Great Black, 187, 455
+
+---- ---- Spotted, 160, 253, 300
+
+---- Lesser Spotted, 80
+
+---- Spanish Green, 247-8, 253, 256, 262-3
+
+Wood-Pigeon, 160, 253, 301, 419
+
+Wood-Sandpiper, 275, 453
+
+Wren, 160, 455, 457
+
+---- Fire-crest, 407, 455, 458
+
+---- Willow-, 247, 249, 452
+
+---- Wood-, 452
+
+Wryneck, 451, 455, 457
+
+
+Yellowhammer, 454-5
+
+
+Zincali, 277 _et seq._, 287 _et seq._
+
+Zurita, 211
+
+Woodfall & Kinder, Printers, 70 to 76, Longacre, London, W.C.
+
+_Demy 8vo, 300 pages, with 50 Illustrations by the Author, 12s. 6d._
+
+Bird-Life of the Borders:
+
+RECORDS OF
+
+WILD SPORT AND NATURAL HISTORY ON MOORLAND AND SEA.
+
+BY
+
+ABEL CHAPMAN.
+
+
+"At last we have a book on birds in their haunts by a writer who is
+thoroughly master of his subject--one who has plenty to say, and who
+also knows how to place his experiences vividly before the reader. The
+portions devoted to the Cheviots and the moorlands recall the scent of
+the heather, while the narrative of adventures by day and by night in a
+gunning punt along the 'slakes' off Holy Island is pervaded by the keen
+salt breezes from the North Sea. In addition to his powers of
+description, Mr. Chapman is possessed of considerable abilities as a
+draughtsman, and although, through modesty, the fact is not mentioned on
+the title-page, this work contains numerous illustrations from his own
+pen-and-ink sketches, some of them being really admirable for breadth
+and boldness of execution.... As regards the second part, which treats
+of wild-fowling with the stancheon-gun, we can only say that nothing
+like it has appeared since the publication of Colonel Hawker's classic
+work. The haunts and habits of wild-fowl by day and night have never
+before been so clearly pointed out in any work with which we are
+acquainted."--_Athenaeum._
+
+"One of the pleasantest books conceivable ..., it illustrates the
+valuable results of many years' observation, sometimes in the way of
+jottings from note-books, sometimes in descriptive sketches that are the
+most stirring and animated of pictures. Mr. Chapman is a naturalist of
+Gilbert White's school in the keenness and accuracy of his perceptions.
+He sees things for himself and takes nothing upon trust. Every lover of
+a country life will delight in his vivid sketches.... The author's
+enthusiasm is something irresistible. Even the drawbacks of that
+'waiting game,' wild-fowling appear as of no weight when estimating the
+glories of the sport as set forth in the admirable chapters on
+'Wild-Fowl of the North-East Coast,' 'Midnight on the Oozes,' 'Wild-Fowl
+and the Weather,' and so forth. Mr. Chapman illustrates his book with
+pen-and-ink drawings, chiefly of wild-fowl, which are excellent for the
+most part, and excellently reproduced."--_Saturday Review._
+
+"The ardour for sport is tempered in the author's case by a steady habit
+of observation, backed by careful note-taking and _reflection_, and
+widened by experiences in other lands; and the result is such an
+accurate record of the habits and movements of living birds in a single
+district, and at all seasons of the year, as is hardly to be found in
+any other volume of the same modest size and pretensions.... When the
+Southern reader lays down this book he feels quite at home among the
+curlew, the golden plover, and the grouse on the moors; he feels that he
+has done the next best thing to a personal endeavour to get a sight of
+those long lines of wild-geese on the bleak Northumbrian
+coast."--_Spectator._
+
+"An invigorating out-of-doors air pervades this book, and a happy
+directness of description.... Although very comprehensively treating of
+bird-life, a considerable portion of the book--and that not the least
+interesting--is devoted to shooting (open and covert), but mainly punt
+shooting. In sporting experience, so far as concerns the north-east
+coast, Mr. Chapman stands in the front rank, and discourses of it with
+an authority beyond controversy or challenge."--_Land and Water._
+
+"Among the classics of local Natural History."--_Scotsman._
+
+"His pages bristle with curiously minute and interesting facts
+concerning 'our feathered friends.'"--_Leeds Mercury._
+
+"Reads with the freshness of romance."--_Glasgow Herald._
+
+"Every page is original, breezy, and fresh, and calculated to arouse the
+longings of the sportsman, naturalist, and artist."--_Newcastle
+Courant._
+
+"One of the best books we have ever come across on bird-life, not only
+of the borders, but of the United Kingdom."--_Western Daily Press_
+(Bristol).
+
+"A charming book, of which no true naturalist or sportsman will quickly
+tire."--_Guardian._
+
+"Will enchant all who are fond of birds. Sympathy with all living
+creatures, careful observation with cautious deductions, and strong love
+for the bleak moors and wild scenery of the Cheviots--such are the
+characteristics of this most interesting book.... The illustrations add
+a great charm to a book redolent of wild life and careful
+observation."--_Academy._
+
+"Abounds in subjects of interest; the scientist will not be disgraced
+and the lover of sport and outdoor adventure will be more than
+pleased.... The illustrations are in every sense an additional charm....
+No book we ever read so amply fulfilled the promise of its
+title."--_Kelso Mail._
+
+"We predict for it the success to which its originality and charm, no
+less than its scientific value, eminently entitle it."--_Northern Whig_
+(Belfast).
+
+"Transports us to the borderland of England and Scotland, as well as to
+that of sport and science, and contrives to give us pictures of Arctic
+Northumberland which are appallingly glacial, with episodes of bird-life
+on moor or marsh which are astonishingly wild for the British
+Islands.... Writes of them all with the picturesque vigour that comes of
+thorough knowledge and deep affection."--_Pall Mall Gazette._
+
+"It is doubtful if the birds themselves, if they could read such books,
+would not count it folly to wish that their masters were more wise than
+they are in the ways of wild-fowl, seeing that such knowledge must be
+gathered mainly with the fowling-piece and the stancheon-gun. They might
+deem the apathy of King Log preferable to the flattering attentions of
+King Stork. Books of Sport and natural history are written, however, for
+sportsmen and naturalists and not for birds. Mr. Chapman's volume is one
+of the best of its kind. It has blemishes, as every work that has vigour
+and originality about it must have. But it is full of keen and
+intelligent observation.... Exhilarating and delightful."--_Scots
+Observer._
+
+"Many years of wandering on the hills, moors, and mosses of the
+Border-land, and of wild-fowl shooting on the bleak and exposed
+north-east coast, have given the author ample opportunity, and he has
+evidently made use of his chances, the result being these pleasant and
+original chapters, written in the best style, and the perusal of which
+must be delightful to every true lover of nature."--_The Naturalist._
+
+"This is an admirable book of its kind ... full of interest to devotees
+of the gun and rod."--_Nature._
+
+"For attitudes of wild-geese we have seen nothing better than the
+illustrations to Mr. Abel Chapman's 'Bird-life of the Borders.'"--_The
+Field._
+
+"Although reviewers may play for safety when they are not sure of their
+subject as regards an indifferent book, they show a wonderfully quick
+appreciation for one that is thoroughly good. The present volume is a
+case in point, for the author is at once a true sportsman and a
+naturalist, as well as an artist of no mean ability, and from all sides
+comes the chorus of praise."--_Annals and Magazine of Natural History._
+
+
+GURNEY & JACKSON, 1, PATERNOSTER ROW.
+
+(SUCCESSORS TO MR. VAN VOORST.)
+
+
+SOME BOOKS ABOUT BIRDS
+
+PUBLISHED BY
+
+GURNEY AND JACKSON.
+
+
+ =A History of British Birds.= By the late WM. YARRELL, V.P.L.S.,
+ F.Z.S. Fourth Edition, revised to the end of the Second Volume by
+ Professor NEWTON, M.A., F.R.S. The revision continued by HOWARD
+ SAUNDERS, F.L.S. 4 vols. 8vo, cloth, with 564 Illustrations, L4.
+
+"The Fourth Edition of 'Yarrell' will remain for many years a classic
+without a rival"--_Academy._
+
+ =Notes on Sport and Ornithology.= By His Imperial and Royal Highness
+ the late CROWN PRINCE RUDOLF OF AUSTRIA. Translated, with the
+ Author's permission, by C. G. DANFORD. Demy 8vo, 650 pages, with an
+ Etching by FRANK SHORT, 18s.
+
+ =Bird-Life of the Borders=: Records of Wild Sport and Natural History
+ on Moorland and Sea. By ABEL CHAPMAN. With numerous Illustrations
+ by the Author. 8vo, 12s. 6d.
+
+ =The Fowler in Ireland=: or, Notes on the Haunts and Habits of Wild
+ Fowl and Sea Fowl, including Instructions in the Art of Shooting
+ and Capturing them. By Sir RALPH PAYNE-GALLWEY, Bart. With many
+ Illustrations of Fowling, Birds, Boats, Guns, and Implements. 8vo,
+ L1 1s.
+
+ =The Book of Duck Decoys=, their Construction, Management, and
+ History. By Sir RALPH PAYNE-GALLWEY, Bart. Crown 4to, cloth, with
+ coloured Plates, Plans, and Woodcuts, L1 5s.
+
+ =The Birds of Lancashire.= By F. S. MITCHELL. Second Edition. Revised
+ and Annotated by HOWARD SAUNDERS, F.L.S., &c., with additions by R.
+ J. HOWARD, and other local authorities. 297 pages, demy 8vo, with
+ map and 12 illustrations, 10s. 6d.
+
+ =The Birds of East Kent=, A Tabulated List and Description of, with
+ Anecdotes and an Account of their Haunts. By GEORGE DOWKER, F.G.S.,
+ 8vo, sewed, 2s. 6d.
+
+ =The Birds of Middlesex.= By J. E. HARTING. Post 8vo, 7s. 6d.
+
+ =The Birds of Somersetshire.= By CECIL SMITH. Post 8vo, 7s. 6d.
+
+ =The Birds of Norfolk.= By the late HENRY STEVENSON. Completed by
+ THOMAS SOUTHWELL. 3 vols. 8vo, L1 11s. 6d.
+
+ =The Birds of the Humber District.= By JOHN CORDEAUX. Post 8vo, 6s.
+
+ =The Birds of Suffolk.= By CHURCHILL BABINGTON, D.D., V.P.R.S.L., &c.
+ 8vo, cloth, 10s. 6d.
+
+ =The Birds of Jamaica.= By P. H. GOSSE. Post 8vo, 10s.
+
+ =The Birds of Egypt.= By Captain G. E. SHELLEY, F.Z.S., &c. Royal
+ 8vo, Coloured Plates, L1 11s. 6d.
+
+ =The Birds of Damara-Land= and Adjacent Countries of South-West
+ Africa. By the late C. J. ANDERSSON. Arranged and edited, with
+ Notes, by JOHN HENRY GURNEY. 8vo, 10s. 6d.
+
+ =A Handbook of British Birds.= Showing the Distribution of the
+ Resident and Migratory Birds in the British Islands, with an Index
+ to the Records of the Rarer Specimens. By J. E. HARTING, F.L.S.,
+ &c. 8vo, 7s. 6d.
+
+ =Hints on Shore-Shooting=, including a Chapter on Skinning and
+ Preserving Birds. By J. E. HARTING, F.L.S. Post 8vo, 3s. 6d.
+
+ =A List of British Birds.= Compiled by a Committee of the British
+ Ornithologists' Union. 8vo, sewed, 10s. 6d.
+
+ =A List of British Birds.= Second Thousand. Revised by HOWARD
+ SAUNDERS, F.L.S., F.Z.S., &c. For labelling Specimens or for
+ Reference. 8vo, sewed, 6d.
+
+
+GURNEY & JACKSON, 1, PATERNOSTER ROW.
+
+(SUCCESSORS TO MR. VAN VOORST.)
+
+
+Standard Works on British Natural History.
+
+
+ =The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne=, in the County of
+ Southampton. By the late Rev. GILBERT WHITE, formerly Fellow of
+ Oriel College, Oxford. Edited by THOMAS BELL, F.R.S., F.L.S.,
+ F.G.S., &c., Professor of Zoology in King's College, London. 2
+ vols. 8vo, with Steel-plate and other Illustrations, L1 11s. 6d.
+
+"They cannot fail to take their place as the only complete edition of
+Gilbert White's writings. Their compilation has been evidently a labour
+of love to Professor Bell, and his work will be appreciated by all
+admirers of the naturalist as a labour of love ought to be."--_The
+Guardian._
+
+A few copies have been printed on larger paper, royal 8vo, with the
+Plates on India Paper, L3 3s.
+
+ =A History of British Quadrupeds=; including the Cetacea. By THOMAS
+ BELL, F.R.S., &c. Second Edition, revised and partly rewritten by
+ the Author, assisted by R. F. TOMES and E. R. ALSTON. 8vo,
+ illustrated by 160 Woodcuts, L1 6s.
+
+ =History of British Reptiles.= By THOMAS BELL, F.R.S., President of
+ the Linnean Society, V.P.Z.S., &c., Professor of Zoology in King's
+ College, London. Second Edition, with 50 Illustrations, 12s.
+
+ =Yarrell's History of British Fishes.= Third Edition, with Figures
+ and Description of the additional Species by Sir JOHN RICHARDSON,
+ C.B., and with a Portrait and Memoir. 2 vols. 8vo, 522
+ Illustrations, L3 3s.--The First and Second Supplements, containing
+ the additional Species, with the Portrait and Memoir, are sold
+ separately, for the convenience of purchasers of the earlier
+ Editions.
+
+ =History of British Stalk-Eyed Crustacea= (Lobsters, Crabs, Prawns,
+ Shrimps, &c.). By THOMAS BELL, President of the Linnean Society,
+ F.G.S., F.Z.S., Professor of Zoology in King's College, London.
+ Illustrated by 174 Engravings of Species and Tail-pieces. 8vo, L1
+ 5s.
+
+ =History of British Sessile-Eyed Crustacea= (Sandhoppers, &c.). By C.
+ SPENCE BATE, F.L.S., and J. O. WESTWOOD, F.L.S., &c. With Figures
+ of all the Species and numerous Tail-pieces. Uniform with the
+ Stalk-Eyed Crustacea by Professor Bell. 2 vols. 8vo, L3.
+
+ =History of British Mollusca and their Shells.= By Professor EDWARD
+ FORBES, F.R.S., &c., and SYLVANUS HANLEY, B.A., F.L.S. Illustrated
+ by a Figure of each known Animal and of all the Shells, engraved on
+ 203 copper-plates, 4 vols. 8vo, L6 10s.; royal 8vo, with the Plates
+ Coloured, L13.
+
+ =A History of the British Hydroid Zoophytes.= By the Rev. THOMAS
+ HINCKS, B.A. 2 vols. 8vo, cloth, with 67 Plates, L2 2s.; large
+ paper, royal 8vo, L4 4s.
+
+ =History of the British Zoophytes.= By GEORGE JOHNSTON, M.D., LL.D.
+ Second Edition, in 2 vols. 8vo, with an Illustration of every
+ Species. L2 2s.; large paper, royal 8vo, L4 4s.
+
+ =History of British Starfishes and other Animals of the Class
+ Echinodermata.= By EDWARD FORBES, M.W.S., Professor of Botany in
+ King's College, London. 8vo, with more than 120 Illustrations, 15s.
+
+ =A History of the British Marine Polyzoa.= By the Rev. THOMAS HINCKS,
+ B.A., F.R.S., containing an Introductory Sketch of the Class, and a
+ full and Critical Account of all the British Forms. With Plates,
+ giving Figures of the Species and principal Varieties. 2 vols. demy
+ 8vo, L3 3s.; large paper, royal 8vo, L6 6s.
+
+
+GURNEY & JACKSON, 1, PATERNOSTER ROW.
+
+(SUCCESSORS TO MR. VAN VOORST.)
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] The _fueros_ of the Basques comprise certain franchises and
+privileges granted or upheld by ancient charters, and are their
+undoubted right, though sought to be ignored by Madrid statesmen. It was
+largely through his promises to re-establish their _fueros_, that Don
+Carlos enlisted the sympathy and support of the Basque provinces. The
+subject, however, is an intricate one, and is only alluded to
+incidentally.
+
+[2] An amusing little instance of Spanish justice arose out of
+this:--Having refused to pay the fine, no further steps were taken for
+its recovery, nor to uphold the majesty of the law, until, long
+afterwards, the mulcted man's purse was stolen from his pocket in the
+bull-ring at P----. On his appearing to prosecute the thief, whose guilt
+was clearly proved, the Alcalde declined to restore the money, quietly
+pocketing the purse with the remark, "I think, Senor Caballero, this
+will just about settle the account between us!" This casual way of
+administering justice was amusing enough, and consoled one for the
+feeling of having been "bested."
+
+[3] There is an excellent description of one of these tragic scenes in
+Borrow (_Zincali_, i., pp. 48, 49).
+
+[4] In a subsequent chapter we give some account of the life--and
+death--of Vizco el Borje.
+
+[5] _See_ "El Bandolerismo," by El Excmº. e Ilmo. Senor Don Julian de
+Zugasti, late Governor of the province of Cordova (Madrid, 1876).
+
+[6] We have seen an exception to this in the mountain villages of the
+Castiles, where, on _fiesta_ nights, a sort of rude valse is danced in
+the open street.
+
+[7] The sporting incidents here narrated occurred twenty years ago,
+viz., in March, 1872. This was the authors' first shooting expedition
+_together_: for which reason we place its record in the first chapter.
+
+[8] _Avetarda_ is old Spanish, the modern spelling being _Abutarda_.
+
+[9] The grand secret of success in this sport (as elsewhere remarked) is
+to place the guns _close up_ to the game. The means by which the primary
+object is attained can hardly be set down on paper--nothing but
+practice, quick and good judgment, and a sportsman's instinct will
+effect it. In more than one instance we have found a deadly line
+ambushed within 150 yards of the most watchful bustards, and on ground
+where, to a novice, the feat would certainly be set down as impossible.
+
+[10] The expression "Bull-fight" is a very inadequate interpretation of
+the Spanish _Corrida_, or _Fiesta de Toros_, even in its modern form,
+and conveys no idea of the magnificent spectacular displays of the
+middle ages. Then, the national heroic life was but reflected in the
+arena, in scenes embellished with all the stately accessories and
+colouring dear to semi-Oriental minds. The mimic pageantry of to-day is
+but a relic of former grandeur.
+
+[11] Spanish writers, however, jealous for the national origin of the
+sport, insist that the "Fiestas de Toros" were born in Spain, that there
+alone have they increased and flourished, and that in Spain will they
+continue while time lasts.
+
+[12] On this point, Sanchez de Nieva writes ("El Toreo," published at
+Madrid, 1879):--"The Arabs were much given to bull-fighting, and highly
+skilled in the _lidia_, whether mounted or on foot. It must, however, be
+borne in mind that these encounters took place in Spain, and that the
+so-called Arabs were in reality Spaniards--the Moorish domination having
+then lasted for seven centuries. It may be stated, without fear of
+error, that nearly all the inhabitants of this country, after the first
+two centuries, were, though born in Spain, Arabs in origin."
+
+[13] Attempts were made by other countries to imitate the Spanish
+spectacle. Italy, in 1332, celebrated a tauromachian festival which has
+left a sad record on the page of history. No fewer than nineteen Roman
+gentlemen, and many of lower rank, perished on the horns of the bulls.
+After this tragic event bull-fights were prohibited in Italy, though for
+a time revived by the Spanish in that country after their conquest of
+Flanders and the Low Countries.
+
+[14] De Bedoya's "Historia del Toreo" (Madrid, 1850) gives Francisco de
+Romero as the first professional _lidiador_ of the modern epoch.
+
+[15] The better-bred animals are always the more harmless, if not
+molested.
+
+[16] The following are some of the best known _garrochistas_ of recent
+years: Senores Don Antonio Miura, Don Faustino Morube, Don Miguel
+Garcia, Don Guillermo Ochoteco, Don Jose Silva, Don Fernando Concha, Don
+Agusto Adalid, Don Angel Zaldos, Don Manuel Sanchez-Mira, Marques de
+Bogaraya, Marques de Guadalest, Don Frederico Huesca, Marques de
+Castellones, &c.
+
+[17] The bull-fighters and their friends affect a language peculiar to
+the Plaza: a dialect of systematic construction. To acquire a knowledge
+of this "Jerga" (La Germania), with its idiomatic piquancy and raciness,
+is the aim of the "fancy" young men, the _Flamencos_ of Southern Spain.
+To be in the circle of the popular bull-fighters, with its perilous
+female entourage, is considered _chic_ by certain gilded youth.
+Flamenco-ism appears to find its _beau ideal_ in the borderland which
+lies between the bizarre existence of the "torero" and the Gitano or
+gypsy. (_See_ chapter on the Spanish Gypsy of to-day.)
+
+[18] The _mancha_ of Salavar in the Coto Donana is an example of one of
+these green oases amidst barren, lifeless sand-wastes.
+
+[19] These Godwits (_Limosa belgica_) are more common on passage earlier
+in the spring. We have seen flights of many hundreds in February and
+March. The Common Bar-tailed Godwit (_Limosa rufa_) we have never
+chanced to meet with here, either in winter or spring--only on its
+southern passage, in September.
+
+[20] Kittiwakes and Black-headed Gulls in swarms during March and early
+April, whitening acres of water. The latter remained till perfect
+summer-plumage is attained (by March 21st). Little Gulls frequent: on
+two occasions (in February and March) observed in scores. _Larus fuscus_
+and _L. argentatus_ were common in March, and on April 5th we obtained
+an adult of _L. marinus_ in the marisma. Of British Terns, _S. cantiaca_
+and _S. fluviatilis_, were noticed in early spring.
+
+[21] When first hatched, the legs of the young Stilts are quite short;
+but by mid-June are of medium length, pale clay-colour, and curiously
+swollen about the knee-joint. The upper plumage of the young at that
+date is mottled brown, irides brown. By the following January these
+young Stilts have acquired a black and white plumage; but the irides
+remain dark, and the legs a pale pink. The adults vary in the
+disposition of black and white in their plumage, especially on head and
+neck, and some few have the breast prettily tinged with roseate.
+
+[22] A pair of the _L. gelastes_ shot this day (together with some other
+of our Spanish specimens) are now set up in the Hancock Museum at
+Newcastle-on-Tyne.
+
+[23] From the dates subsequently given, it would appear that the young
+camels are produced about the month of February, or perhaps earlier.
+
+[24] With the possible exception of those stated to have been discovered
+in the Kum-tagh deserts of Central Asia by Col. Prejevalsky, the Russian
+explorer.
+
+[25] Wild-bred cattle, many of them destined for the bull-rings of Jerez
+or Seville.
+
+[26] The repugnance evinced by horses towards the camel was known ages
+ago. At the battle of Sardis (B.C. 546) this equine weakness was
+utilized by Cyrus in opposing to the Lydian cavalry a vanguard of camels
+(Herodotus, Clio, pp. 78, 80). A similar stratagem was proposed by
+Amurath I. at the decisive battle of Kossova between the Ottoman army
+and the Confederate hosts of Servia, Bosnia, and Wallachia, August 27th,
+1389, but was abandoned in deference to the fiery impetuosity of Prince
+Bajazet and some supposed precepts of the Koran.
+
+[27] The English language provides no word specially to designate a male
+goat. We have, therefore, fallen back on the word _ram_, which, though
+not strictly accurate, is the nearest available term.
+
+[28] Horns from Nevada are thinner, more compressed laterally, and the
+ridges show the spiral curves less distinctly. It is, after all, the old
+question of what constitutes a species.
+
+[29] The horns of the Spanish ibex rather resemble those of the burrell,
+or wild sheep of the Caucasus, &c., than typical ibex-horns.
+
+[30] "In the Pyrenees," Sir Victor Brooke writes us, "they are rare, and
+live in the worst precipices I ever saw an animal in. They go into far
+worse ground than chamois, and are very nocturnal--never seen except in
+the dusk and early dawn, unless disturbed."
+
+[31] The ibex of Asia Minor--a quite distinct species, _Capra
+aegragus_--appears, according to Mr. E. N. Buxton (_Nineteenth Century_,
+February, 1891, p. 261, _et seq._), to have somewhat similar habits,
+frequenting the pine forests and lower wooded slopes of the hills, by
+preference to the treeless summits. But the Turkish mountaineer is a
+very different man to his Spanish representative, and appears utterly
+careless of the charms of the chase, seldom molesting the wild goats,
+whereas in Spain they are rarely left in peace while there is a chance
+of killing them.
+
+[32] A previous expedition in Gredos had proved entirely blank, not an
+ibex being secured in a fortnight's shooting.
+
+[33] The ibex are very fond of this shrub, which in summer has a red
+bloom; and the zone of the _piornales_ is the lowest to which they
+descend, even in winter.
+
+[34] It is worth mentioning, as showing the importance of the wind and
+the precarious nature of this pursuit, that on the former occasion a
+sudden change in the wind had destroyed all chance for the day, and
+rendered useless many hours' hard work and carefully-planned operations.
+Even a "flaw" in its direction is often fatal to success, so keen of
+scent is the _cabra montes_.
+
+[35] From big game to butterflies is a far cry; yet, on the chance of
+having some entomological readers, we may mention the following
+_Rhodopalocera_ observed in these Central Spanish sierras: On the wooded
+slopes and among the scrub, the speckled wood (_AEgeria_) and a large
+wall (? sp.) were common; so also was a small species of azure blue. A
+single orange-tip (_Cardamines_) was observed, and several of the
+handsome _Melanargia sillius_. A very small copper was perhaps
+_Polyommatus virgaureae, var. Miegii_, Vogel, and of the clouded yellows,
+_Colias phicomone_, E., higher, and _C. edusa_ and _hyale_, lower, were
+also observed. On the heights was a small orange-, or chestnut-coloured
+insect, very active, and quite unknown to us. A hairstreak (? _Theckla
+roboris_) and _L. sinapis_ occurred in the lower woods, where the
+brilliant _Gonopterix Cleopatra_ was also seen, as well as one or two
+examples of a large and very handsome insect, apparently of the
+_Limenitis_ group--chequered black-and-white, probably _L. Camilla_, F.
+One should, however, be a specialist to identify these exotic species.
+
+[36] Such place-names as Mom-Beltran de Lys, the Torre de la Triste
+Condesa, and others, seem to suggest tales of historic lore and legend,
+probably long since forgotten.
+
+[37] The highest point of the Riscos appeared to be about 7,000 ft., and
+commanded a superb panorama of the whole Sierra de Gredos, with its
+towering peaks and snow-fields stretching away to their apex in the
+Plaza de Almanzor. With regard to altitudes, we here write with some
+uncertainty, as our aneroid, after being depressed to twenty-one inches,
+appeared to exhibit some irregularities, and had possibly suffered some
+internal or constitutional injury.
+
+[38] We succeeded in taking several eggs of this bird in the crevices of
+a sheer crag, after a somewhat perilous climb. These eggs are very
+light-coloured; the ground colour is pale cream, faintly spotted with
+brown and dull greyish splashes.
+
+[39] Specific names not guaranteed.
+
+[40] We found a nest of the Sandpiper (_Tolanus hypoleucus_) with four
+nearly fresh eggs on May 23rd--Provincia de Santander.
+
+[41] This transformation of colour is well represented (though not
+designedly so) by the two plates at p. 88 of Dr. Bree's "Birds of
+Europe" (2nd ed.). The "Tawny Eagle" there figured might be a young
+Imperial of, say, two months old; while _Aquila culleni_, so far as
+colour is concerned, would do duty for the same bird at two years.
+
+[42] Now in the Hancock Museum at Newcastle.
+
+[43] The Rock-Martins' nests were fixed under the roof and upper ledges
+of the caves, not unlike Swallows'. Their eggs are white, slightly
+flecked with grey. At the same date (May 18th) we also obtained a nest
+of the Blue Rock-Thrush, with five beautiful greenish-blue eggs. The
+male, during the breeding-season, has a pretty habit of towering up in
+the air, singing merrily, then falling back among the rocks like a
+stone.
+
+[44] Observed at this place and date a greater variety of butterflies
+than ever before in Spain--brilliant Painted Ladies and Fritillaries
+(?sp.); but most conspicuous were "yellows" of various kinds: _Thaeis
+polyxena_ and _Colias edusa_, large pale "sulphurs," some
+whole-coloured, others with bright orange-tips; in others, again, the
+orange adjoined the body. There were also many Heaths and Browns,
+Speckled Wood, Bath Whites, and many (to us) unknown species.
+
+[45] One nest still contained an unfledged youngster. On my appearance
+at his abode the unsightly little brute at once disgorged a mass of
+carrion that necessitated an immediate retreat.
+
+[46] Of the 8,529,600 separate rural properties which exist on the
+Spanish land-register, 2,729,600 are administered and cultivated for the
+account of their proprietors; and 800,000 are let at a rental, either in
+cash or "kind."
+
+[47] Though no hay is made expressly, yet the sun-baked herbage, called
+_pastos_, of the fallows and winter grazings is practically equivalent
+to hay found ready-made.
+
+[48] Taxation falls heavily enough on the farmer direct. Land-owners are
+asked by the State for about one-fourth of the rental. The tax on
+tenant-farmers is equally heavy, estimated by a cumbrous assessment,
+based on the number of draught-oxen employed, or the head of grazing
+stock. A large proportion of the taxation leviable is, however, evaded.
+
+[49] The following table shows the production of _cereals_ (in Spain) in
+a normal year:--
+
+ Wheat 32,776,055 hectolitres.
+ Barley 17,410,164 "
+ Rye 7,392,778 "
+ Maize 7,788,183 "
+ Oats 2,633,672 "
+
+
+[50] A hectare is, roughly, about an acre and a half. A hectolitre is
+equivalent to two and three-quarter bushels.
+
+[51] The large irides and general appearance of this species seem to
+indicate crepuscular tendencies, and an affinity--obsolete or
+evolvent--to the _Strigidae_, which is recognized in its generic name,
+_Circaeetus_, next to the Harriers. But, in fact, the affinity is more
+apparent than real, for the Serpent-Eagle is of purely diurnal habits.
+
+[52] Some Kites (_M. ictinus_), which had been feeding on reptiles, had
+a most offensive smell. The beak of the male, in this species, is
+_yellow_ to the tip; in the female, horn-colour. The kites all lay _two_
+eggs, on the bare sticks--only once, in each case, have we found the
+dual number exceeded, viz., _M. ictinus_, three young, on May 2nd; _M.
+migrans_, three eggs, on May 10th. We have found the eggs of the
+first-named as early as the closing days of March.
+
+[53] Partridges commence this love-song as early as February. In March
+it is continuous at sunrise and towards dusk. Here is an attempt to
+syllable it:--
+
+ "Ch[)u]ck, ch[)u]ck ... churrouk, churrouk,
+ Chukar, chukar, ch[=o][)u]k!"
+
+
+[54] In Egypt the Grey-backed Crow (_Corvus cornix_) is almost
+exclusively the Cuckoo's dupe; in Algeria, _Pica mauritanica_.
+
+[55] "The Zincali; or, an Account of the Gypsies of Spain." By George
+Borrow. 2 vols. London, John Murray, 1841.
+
+[56] Whatever may have been their origin, their language demonstrates
+that the Spanish gypsies are not (as has been suggested) relics of the
+expelled Moors, Arabs, or _Moriscos_, with whose tongue theirs has no
+affinity. Many of the Rommany words appear to be of Sanscrit derivation.
+
+[57] In speed of foot, the gitano lads carry off the palm, leaving all
+competitors behind in the rare athletic contests which have taken place
+in Southern Spain.
+
+[58] These particulars are, however, given in nearly all Spanish diaries
+and almanacs.
+
+[59] We do not encumber ourselves on these bird-hunting expeditions with
+tents, tressle-beds, indiarubber baths, and the other luxuries of the
+regular shooting campaigns. Sometimes, after sleeping in the _cerrones_,
+if no water was near, one's toilet was confined to a general "shake up,"
+like a fox-terrier turning out from his mat, and we rode on till a
+hill-burn afforded a chance of a bath and breakfast.
+
+[60] Our own experience on this point would not enable us to assert this
+fact so positively--indeed we have observed instances in which the
+reverse case _appeared_ to obtain; but the circumstance has been stated
+to us by an ornithologist whose authority stands beyond question or
+doubt.
+
+[61] Both my companion Ramon Romatez, and Juan Guarro y Guarro, as well
+as several of our other men, were independent yeomen, owning from 150 to
+200 goats apiece, which they pastured on the slopes of the sierra. They
+were, however, glad to accompany us for the sum of eight _reales_ (one
+shilling and eightpence) a day.
+
+[62] Except at vintage-times the Alto Douro is almost uninhabited. Hence
+in early autumn, when work is plentiful, there occurs an extraordinary
+influx of labourers--men and women--many from considerable distances,
+and especially from the Spanish province of Galicia, flocking into the
+Alto Douro as the hop-pickers in September pour into Kent from the
+_arcana_ of London, or as the Irish harvesters at that season flood the
+Midlands and North of England.
+
+[63] The following are the constituents of the four different classes of
+soil of the Jerez vignobles, according to Don Simon de Roxas
+Clemente:--1st. _Albariza_, chiefly consists of carbonate of lime, with
+a small admixture of silex and clay, and occasionally magnesia. 2nd.
+_Barros_, composed of quartz or sand, mixed with clay and red or yellow
+ochre, which forms horizontal bands extending along the coast from the
+mouth of the Guadalquivir as far as Conil. 3rd. _Arenas_, or pure quartz
+ore sand. 4th. _Bugeo_, which contains argillaceous loam, mixed with
+carbonate of lime, some quartz ore sand, and a large proportion of
+vegetable mould.--"History of Modern Wines," by Dr. Alexander Henderson,
+p. 190.
+
+[64] Dr. Henderson makes a contrary statement in his "History of Ancient
+and Modern Wines," p. 190 (London, 1824); but this we imagine must be
+attributed to a slip of the pen, and is, in any case, erroneous.
+
+[65] Nowhere can these spectacles be witnessed with greater ease, or to
+better advantage, than on the Lower Guadalquivir, where, from the deck
+of our vessel, we have counted as many as forty or fifty _barbones_
+within easy reach of a field-glass. It is, however, only in the first
+hours of daylight that they are thoroughly "on view."
+
+[66] Col. Irby gives this love-note as "_prut, prut_." Mr. Howard
+Saunders describes the rising and falling movement as more of a _jump_,
+which may very likely be a more correct definition; or, perhaps, both
+actions are executed. At the distance at which observations are
+possible, it is difficult to be quite certain what one sees.
+
+[67] It may be appropriate here to add that the curious chamaeleon, which
+is found nowhere else in Europe, is abundant in this district. It is
+not, however, seen in mid-winter. Another remarkable reptile is the
+lobe-footed gecko (_Platydactylus muralis_), which swarms about rocks
+and old walls. Both the reptiles and insects of Spain would probably
+richly repay further research.
+
+[68] Since the above was written we have acquired the sporting rights
+over parts of these great marshes, and have engaged the worthy
+wildfowlers, Vasquez and Vergara, as keepers. Many pleasant days have we
+spent with them and their ponies. But of this sport a fuller account
+will be found in another chapter.
+
+[69] That is, with two men behind the pony. We have since then, going
+_single-handed_, occasionally succeeded in outwitting even the Grey Lag.
+
+[70] Garganeys are said to be the swiftest of all the duck-tribe, and to
+lead the migrating flights, both on their southern journey and also when
+steering north. Hence their name: "_capitanes_."
+
+[71] In the previous year (1888) the opening bag was 37 geese, 373
+ducks, and 46 various.
+
+[72] The best day, walking for snipe, December 4, 1889, produced 232
+snipe--six guns.
+
+[73] This failure of the gunning-punt in Spain is the more inexplicable
+as in Egypt--the only other southern land in which, to our knowledge,
+this sport has been attempted--the very reverse was the case. An
+Englishman who took out a punt to the Nile abandoned the pursuit, as he
+found no difficulty in taking the craft to such close quarters that he
+bagged fifty to sixty each shot. Similarly, Lord Londesborough found the
+fowl in the Egyptian lagoons so easily accessible that, after securing
+2,290 geese and 1,800 ducks in the season (sixty-four geese being his
+biggest shot), he abandoned further operations as lacking the one
+essential condition--that of difficulty. (_Badminton
+Library._--"Shooting: Moor and Marsh," pp. 261-2.)
+
+[74] Our biggest shot with the _cabresto_-ponies realized 74 ducks and
+teal; guns, a single 4-and a double 8-bore.
+
+[75] The following note, being made from experience and on the spot, may
+be worth inserting:--In driving large game of any kind, be careful to
+make a good screen: there is always time to build up a breastwork either
+of branches, or rocks, or snow, or whatever the material at hand may be.
+If placed behind a thick bush, cut a deep nick into it with the
+hunting-knife, so that one stands _well back_--_i.e._, right into the
+bush, and appears to form an integral part thereof. How glad one is of
+these little precautions _when game appears_!
+
+[76] It may, however, fairly be added that we were using, in those days,
+spherical bullets and the old cylinder smooth-bores--always erratic in
+ball-practice beyond forty or fifty yards. All that is now superseded by
+the introduction of the Paradox rifled gun (Col. Fosbery's patent), one
+of the prettiest inventions and most remarkable improvements in modern
+gunnery. With this beautiful weapon, which shoots ball as accurately as
+a rifle, and comes to the eye as handy as a game-gun, no distracting
+doubts need flurry one's aim at flying stag or boar within one hundred
+yards; even snap-shots in covert are now a luxury instead of the
+nerve-and temper-trying ordeal of yore. Such is the power and
+penetration of the hollow-fronted conical ball that we have "raked" a
+stag from stem to stern at one hundred and forty yards, the bullet
+entering his chest, and lodging near the root of the tail almost
+undamaged, after traversing the whole of the animal's vitals. For all
+Spanish large game, the 12-bore Paradox, weighing 7-1/4 lbs., and
+burning 3-1/2 drs. of powder, is an admirable weapon, and, except for
+ibex and deer-stalking in the higher cordilleras, where very long shots
+may be necessary, it almost takes the place of the heavier express
+rifle.
+
+[77] "Quien come carne de Grulla, vive cien anos."
+
+[78] These old and cunning stags do not always break covert so readily,
+as the following incident will show. We had tracked a hart for some
+miles, till eventually the trail led towards quite a small clump--not
+two acres--of 20-ft. gorse and tree-heath with an outer fringe of
+bamboo, all growing on dry ground, though entirely surrounded by
+flood-water. Every indication pointed to the stag having couched in this
+congenial covert; the hunters, however, traversed it without moving
+game. The water-weeds outside showed no sign of the stag having passed
+onward: but, to make sure, we took a wide cast on the drier ground
+beyond, separating so as completely to encircle the _mancha_. No vestige
+of a trail could be seen; clearly the beast still lay in the recesses of
+his island-sanctuary. The gun once more took up his position to leeward,
+and the covert was beaten again--this time more effectively, for
+presently, amid crash of branches and bamboos, the stag, which had been
+lying like a hare in its form, bounded out across the shallow
+marsh--with the usual result!
+
+[79] Where exact dates are mentioned in the following table they refer
+to the earliest or the latest occurrences, respectively, that have come
+under our notice.
+
+[80] _Corrigendum_:--Though we have stated (p. 243) that the Raven
+breeds _late_ in Spain, it also does so early, for Mr. Saunders writes
+us:--"At Malaga it was nesting by mid-February, and near Baza I watched
+a pair feeding their young between 15th and 20th March."
+
+[Illustration: image of the book's back cover]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Wild Spain (Espana agreste), by
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