Part 28 (2/2)

A minor difficulty inherent to this pursuit is to select the precise psychological -position This indeed is a feature co, driving geese or even snipe; in fact there is hardly a really wild creature that can be dealt with froe-shooters at hoe or butt, being told to hide theh or bare stubble Here, in Spain, it ht side (to avoid sun-glints), and that also loses a moment

[Illustration: BUSTARDS PassING FULL BROADSIDE]

All one's care and elaborate strategy is ofttih the blunders of a novice Some men have no more sense of concealment than that fabled ostrich which is said to hide its head in the sand (which it doesn't); others can't keep still These are for ever poking their heads up and down or--worse still--trying to see what is occurring in front

We may conclude this chapter with a hint or two to new hands

Never move from your prone position till the bustard are in shot, and after that, not till you are sure the whole operation is coh you do not know it

Never claim to have wounded a bustard merely because it passed so near and offered so easy a shot that you can't believe youdead behind

All the sa as it res will sometimes fly half a mile and then drop dead

Wear clothes suited, est, for choice--but remember that immobility is tenfold more important than colour A pure white object that is quiescent is overlooked, where a clod of turf that _, when bustards gorge on green food, gralloch your victiested mass in the crop quickly decomposes and destroys the ment that practically arand pack, between thirty and forty bustard beautifully ”horseshoed,” and quite unconscious thereof Moht in our faces! At that critical ht flank and actually behind us, three huge old _barbones_ directing a course that would bring theht, properly allowed this trio to pass; not so No 3 But the culprit, on rising to fire, had the chagrin to realise (too late) his error The whole superb ar forward direct on the centre of our line! In an instant they took it in, swerved majestically to the left, and escaped scot-free

That No 3 had secured a right-and-left at the adventitious trio in no sort of way exculpated his mistake

CHAPTER XXV

THE GREAT BUSTARD (_Continued_)

The following illustrates in outline a day's bustard-shooting and incidentally sho strongly haunted these birds are, each pack to its own particular locality

On reaching our point (a seventeen-kilometres' drive), the scouts sent out the day before reported three bands nuhly forty, forty, and sixteen--in all nearly a hundred birds The nearest lot was to the west These we found easily, and B F B got a brace, right-and-left, without incident

Riding back eastwards, the second pack had moved, but we shortly descried the third, in two divisions, adown or standing drowsily, and we halted for lunch before co the afternoon we drove this pack three ti a brace on first and third drives, while on the second the birds broke out to the side

Now bustards are, in Spanish phrase, _muy querenciosos_, _ie_ attached to their own particular terrain; and as in these three drives we had pushed them far beyond their much-loved limit, they were now restless and anxious to return

Already before our guns had reached their posts for a fourth drive, seven great bustards were seen on the wing, and a few ht, voluntarily, the whole phalanx shaping their course directly towards us The out forward to his post under the crest of the hill, and the pack, seeing hiuns luckily having seen as passing and taken cover) thus lost another brace of their nuh all full-grown hed from 25-1/2 to 26-1/2 lbs apiece Two ed over 30 lbs, the increased weight being largely due to the abundant feed in spring, but possibly more to the solid distention of the neck[46]

This wet season (1908) the grass on the _manchones_, or falloas rank and luxuriant, nearly knee-deep in close vegetation--more like April than January Already these bustards were showing signs of the chestnut neck, and all had acquired their whiskers The follointer (1909) was dry and not a scrap of vegetation on the fallows Even in February they were absolutely naked and the cattle being fed on broken straw in the byres

The quill-feathers are pale-grey or ash-colour, only deepening into a darker shade towards the tips, and that only on the first two or three feathers The shafts are white, secondaries black, and bastard-wing lavender-white, slightly tipped with a darker shade

In _Wild Spain_ will be found described two reat bustardquite alone; and (B) by two guns working jointly, one taking the chance of a drive, the other outame as in plan (A) We here add a third plan which has occasionally stood us (when alone) in good stead

On finding bustard on a suitable hill, leave yourthe attention of the gaain the reverse slope The attendant then rides forward, the whole operation being so punctually tie at the sa bustards have arrived within shot thereof Needless to add, this involves, besides hard work, a considerable degree of luck, yet on several occasions we have secured as many as four birds a day by this means

[Illustration: ”HURTLING THROUGH spacE”]