Part 28 (1/2)

The thoughts revolving in the leader's eneral lines: First, which is (_a_) the favourite and (_b_) the ht of those bustards when disturbed; secondly, where can guns best be placed athwart that line; thirdly, how can the guns reach these points unseen? A condition precedent to success is that the firing-line shall be drawn around the bustards fairly close up, yet without their knowledge Noild-game in open country devoid of fences, hollows, or covert of any description that problem presents initial difficulties that may well appear insuperable But they are rarely quite so It is here that the fieldcraft of the leader coht fold that will shelter horse figure to within 300 yards of the unconscious _bandada_

Rarely do watercourses or valleys of sufficient depth lend a welcome aid; recourse must usually be had to the reverse slope of the hill whereon the bustards happen to be Without a halt, the party ride round till out of sight At the farthest safe advance, the guns dismount and proceed to spread themselves out--so far as possible in a semicircle--around the focal point[45] At 80 yards apart, each lies prone on earth, utilising such shelter (if any) as may exist on the naked decline--say skeleton thistles, a tuft of wild asparagus, or on rare occasion some natural bank or tiny rain-scoop

[Illustration: GREAT BUSTARD--YOUNG

(1) AS HATCHED

(2) AT TWENTY DAYS OLD

(3) AT ONE MONTH]

[Illustration: SLENDER-BILLED CURLEW (NUMENIUS TENUIROSTRIS)

[See Chapter on ”Bird-life,” _infra_]]

Having now succeeded in placing his guns unseen and within a fatal radius, the leader ratulate himself that his main object has been achieved On the nearness of the line to the gaht depends the issue

[It may be added that bustard are occasionally found in situations that offer no reasonable hope of a successful drive It may then (should no others be knoithin the radius of action) beconable troop; re ”driven,” the likelihood of subsequently putting theuns has enore in this operation, for after ”round, it will not be necessary to line-up the guns quite so near as is usually essential to success For bustards possess so strong an attachment to their _querencias_, or individual haunts, that theya course ive a specific instance of this later

Each pack of bustard has its own _querencia_, and will be found at certain hours to frequent certain places This local knowledge, if obtainable, saves infinite tiame whose approximate positions, after all, may thus be ascertained beforehand]

Noe have placed our guns in line and within that short distance of the unsuspecting game that all but assures a certain shot We cannot, let us confess, recall many moments in life ofprone on the gentle slope listening with every sense on stretch for the cries of the galloping beaters as in wild career they urge the huge birds towards a fatal course Before us rises the curving ridge, its suainst an azure sky--azure but eht air wafts to our ear the tus, and five seconds later that erst ee forer, each great bird with strong and laboured wing-stroke swerves aside One enormous _barbon_ directly overhead receives first attention; a second, full broadside, presents no more difficulty, and ere the double thuds behind have attested the result, we realise that a third, shying off frohbour, is also ”our meat”

This has proved one of our luckier drives, for the _bandada_, splitting up on the centre, offered chances to both flanks of the blockading line--chances which are not always fully exploited

[Illustration: SWERVE ASIDE TO RIGHT AND LEFT]

We have stated, earlier in this chapter, that a the various component factors in a bustard-drive the actual shot is of minor importance That is so; yet truly reood shots constantly reat birds

Precisely sieese, with swans--indeed with all big birds whose wing-action is deliberate and slow Tardy strokes deceive the eye, and the great bulk of the bustard accentuates the deception--it seems impossible to miss them, a fatal error As the Spanish drivers put it: ”Se les llenaron el ojo de carne,” literally, ”the bustards had filled your eye with eese with their 40 strokes fly past ducks at 120, and the bustard's apparently leisured rouse with 200 revolutions to the minute To kill bustard treat thea soft-plued are not hard to kill As coularly easily killed, and with AAA shot may be dropped stone-dead at 80 and even at 100 yards A pair of guns ht into action

Bustards seldom run, but they walk very fast, especially when alarmed

Between the inception of a drive and thewe have known theainal position Instances have occurred of bustards walking over the dividing ridge, to the amazee to say, inged they do not make off, but remain where they have fallen, and an old ht Of course if left alone and out of sight a winged bustard will travel far

In weight cock-bustard vary from, say, 20 to 22 lbs in autuest oldreach 33 and 34 lbs, and one we presented to the National Collection at South Kensington scaled 37 lbs The breast-bone of these big birds is usually quite bare, a horny callosity, owing to friction with the ground while squatting, and the heads and necks of old e--indicative of severe encounters a themselves Hen-bustard seldom exceed 15 lbs at any season

Bustard are usually found in troops varying from half-a-dozen birds to as ether

Bustard-shooting--by which wethe winter months, September to April--is necessarily uncertain in results Soh this is unusual, while on othersbands e, though we roughly estiun as an excellent day's work A not unusual bag for six guns will be about eight head; but we have a note of two days' shooting in April (in two consecutive years) when a party of eight guns, all well-known shots, secured 21 and 22 bustard respectively, together with a single lesser bustard on each day

This was on lands between Alcantarillas and Las Cabezas, but it is fair to add that the ground had been carefully preserved by the owner and the operation organised regardless of expense