Part 10 (1/2)

It was a rifle-shot at these last that finally set the whole host on wing--an indescribable spectacle, hurrying hordes everywhere outflanked by the glinting black and pink gla roar of wings, blending with a babel of croaks and gabblings, whistles and querulous pipes, punctuated by shriller bi-tones,we give that up

[Illustration: ”FLAMINGOES OVER”]

A long ride in prospect precluded serious operations to-night, but towards dusk we lined out our four guns, and in half an hour loaded up the panniers of the carrier-ponies with nearly three score ducks and geese

An hour before the eese Experience had taught the chief flight-lines, and these, over many miles of marsh, were commanded by lines of sunken tubs These, however, the exceptional conditions had rendered temporarily useless

Our tubs lay miles from water; hence each man had to hide as best he could, prostrate behind rush-tuft or twelve-inch sas fleide and scattered, in strange contrast with their custoe, but knew not the cause The geese did The baroone down half an inch, and already, as we asse to fall--the first rain since the spring! The wind, which for weeks had remained ”nailed to the North--_norte clavado_,” in Spanish phrase--flew to all airts, and a change was at hand By eleven there burst what the Spanish well na flashed from a darkened sky, while thunder rolled overhead, and rain drove horizontal on a living hurricane An hour later the heavens cleared, and the sun was shi+ning as before That short and sudden storm, however, had marked an epoch The whole conditions of bird-life in the marisma had been revolutionised within a couple of hours

[Illustration: POCHARD (_Fuligula ferina_)]

In other years, under such conditions as this reylags brought to bag, and it ith such anticipation that we had set out to-day The result totalled but a quarter of such nuraun by lot, had several miles to ride to his reh which we rode amazed even accustomed eyes

At intervals as we advanced across rowth of rush and saeon and teal that the landscape ahead appeared a quivering horizon of wings that shi+ behind a low breastwork, beforeever kept quite clear of swieese keep dropping in, since behind for twenty leagues stretched waterless plain

Merely toevery chance, firing away till barrels grow too hot to hold Here, however, that nature-love that overrides even a fowler's keenness stepped in With half the wildfowl of Europe flashi+ng, wheeling, and alighting within view--ined, likely to be of suprele eon, one after another in superb but almost monotonous rapidity For the unner True, thisthe mutton to the shadow, and this afternoon no special prize rewarded self-denial in letting pass ratifying indeed to fowler's pride it is to pull down in falling heap the sht-and-left at geese, though, it eon pass the silent muzzle Such is individual taste, nor will the h my score, when at 330 PM

I was recalled, only totalled up to seventy-four ducks and four greylag geese

The recall was ih not without hesitation and doubt Could earth provide a better place? ”Yes,” replies Vasquez, ”in one hour the geese will be streaaidilla and Cano Juncero Come! there's no time to lose” Within an hour we had reached the spot The water was four inches deep, with low cover of rushes The revolving stool stood too high, so I knelt in the shallow, and within three ht One I took kneeling, but had to juht , upset the stool and the bag of cartridges thereon! A niceat the very outset of one of those ambrosial half-hours seldoes as well as circueese hurled the the few brief ht, I reckoned I had twenty-three down--seven right-and-lefts--though in the darkness only seventeen could be gathered, the winged all necessarily escaping

[Illustration: WILD GEESE ALIGHTING AT FIFTEEN YARDS

(Take the upper pair right-and-left, leaving the nearer geese for second gun)]

Within thirty-six hours we had secured sixty-two geese and over two hundred ducks For four guns, under favouring conditions, this would have been no very special result; but to-day the foere all alert and restless at the prospect of a coe The keynote had already been sounded that first day, when the _torht ended on the verywe had selected to cole weekbut ell on it? The point ot that year

Let us conclude with a few ornithological observationsdays On November 30, after three days of stormy weather, with tremendous bursts of rainfall, there corations we have witnessed Fro day) cloud upon cloud of ducks kept strea overhead from the ard Frequently a score of packs would be in view at once--never were the heavens clear; and all co in parallel lines to the east Their course see the overland route across Spain which would involve passing over her great cordilleras, say 10,000 feet) had travelled south by the coast-line as far as the latitude of Cape St Vincent Thence they ”hauled their wind”

and bore up on an easterly course which brought thereat marismas of the Guadalquivir[17]

LAS NUEVAS

We had acquired this waste of o and possess it” Initial difficulties arose to confront us Though the whole region now belonged to us (_ie_ the rights of chase, and it boasts but little other value) yet our possession was to be htfully human, and despite the annoyance, captivated our sympathy Local fowlers, accusto for market the wildfowl of the wilderness, resented this acquisition of exclusive rights Our scattered guards were overawed, our reed-built huts were burned, and threats reached us--not toin wild bounds across the watery waste That one quality, however, above mentioned--syether with courtesy and fair-dealing, the erstwhile insurgents in brief time became the best of friends

For the moment, however, we found ourselves hutless, and constrained to encaues away on the distant _terra fir an extra couple of hours' work in the small dark hours

As before 4 AM we rode, beneath a pouring rain, ”path-finding,” in blind darkness across slimy ooze and shallow--not to htjar circled round our cavalcade--true, a very sainst the rules for a nightjar to be here in Deceuns braved this adventure, and by 545 we occupied each his allotted post

These could not be called comfortable, since the positions in which we had to spend the next six or eight hours were quite six inches deep in water, and the only covert a circle of sa the ut fowl Each man had an armful of cut brushwood to kneel on, besides another bundle on which cartridge-bags ht be supported clear of the water[18]

Rain descended in sheets Before it was fully light--indeed the average hu of diurnal habit would probably swear it was still quite dark--the swish of wings overhead foretold the co day Then with a roar the whole h by clock-work