Part 37 (2/2)

As the majority of purchasers come from a distance and usually only re days, such prices as 80 to 100 represent a fairly stiff rent

Few mallards are obtained at the first shoot, but their numbers increase as the winter advances The chief species are pintail, wigeon, teal, and shoveller, together with a few shelducks and oes and spoon-bills frequent the shallows in small numbers

As individual instances; from a _replaza_ that cost 900 pesetas (say 40), and which was the _ninth_ in point of price that year, one gun fired 700 cartridges in a single

The best _replaza_--at least the most expensive (it cost 1500 pesetas)--was tenanted last winter by friends froather: At the first shoot (Noveun, who, after firing 400 shots, was co to injury to his shoulder ”I believe,” he writes, ”I es had I continued all day, but was obliged to leave early The boatathered ninety--sixty ducks, thirty coot--and expected to recover uns: ”No day for duck, a blazing sun so hot that the reflection froh in air and h some were attracted by our 100 decoys We killed ninety-six, eon and pochard, a few mallard and teal, besides twenty snipe The desideratu for”

The _arrozales_ are run dry (and of course the shooting stopped) by thesolely for the sake of the shooting So soon as its level has fallen a couple of inches the fowl all leave directly

CHAPTER xxxIII

ON SMALL-GAME SHOOTING IN SPAIN

Hardly will one enter a village _posada_ or a peasant's lonely cot without observing one inevitable sign A the siral ite And fro-piece, probably a converted ”flinter,” bearing upon its rusty single barrel soold characters--as, ”Antequera, 1843” These two articles, along with a cork-stoppered powder-horn and battered leathern shot-belt, constitute the stock-in-trade and most cherished treasures of our rustic friend, the Spanish cazador Possibly he also possesses a _pachon_, or heavily built native pointer; but the dog is chiefly used to find ground-ga, ever alert and swift of foot, defies all pottering pursuit Hence the _reclamo_, or call-bird, is aled partridges abound throughout the length and breadth of wilder Spain--not, as at home, on the open corn-lands, but amidst the interminable scrub and brushwood of the hills and dales, on the moory wastes, and palmetto-clad prairie On the latter hares, quail, and lesser bustard vary the garee--the lord of the land and the peasant, the farmer, the Padre Cura of the parish, or the localthe traitor _reclae The central idea is, of course, that the _reclae within hearing, when its owner, concealed in the bush hard by, has every opportunity of potting the unconscious game as it runs towards the decoy--two at a shot preferred, or unner for the deed; flying shots with his old ”flinter” would merely mean wasted austae domi_ We have ourselves, on African veld, where dinner depends on the gun, uinea-foithout compunction; but in Spain we have never tried the _reclas should have survived it all--year in and year out--bespeaks a wondrous fecundity, and has inspired new-born ideas of ”preservation,” which have been initiated in Spain with marked success

To this subject we refer later

Though we have ourselves (maybe from ”insular prejudice”) systematically refused to see the _reclamo_ work his treacherous role, yet many Spanish sportsmen are enthusiastic over the system, which they describe as _una faena muy interesante_, and are as proud of their call-birds as we of our setters The _reclaes beco up their wild rivals from afar; and by a softer note the wild hen is also lured to her doom--for the dual influences of love and war are both called into play The e of battle and, all aflahts and runs to seek the unseen challenger As distance lessens the fire of each taunt increases, and, blind with passion, the luckless chaned by barrels peeping from the thicket The female, with more tender purpose, also draws near--the seductive love-note entices; but, oh! the wooing o't--a few pellets of lead end that idyll It is then--when either rival or lover, it e--that the well-constituted _reclae joy, the narrow cage will scarce contain him as he bursts into exultant paeons of victory On the other hand, sullen disappointment is exhibited by the decoy when his exploit has only resulted in athe female call-note is more effective than that of thefrom 2 up to 10

Recently a yearly licence of ten shi+llings per bird has been levied

This has either reduced their numbers, or perhaps caused thee and a _reclauous objects in alame is the special favourite of the Spanish cazador He will search hundreds of acres for a proble day's hunt with his trusty _pachon_ is amply rewarded by a couple or two of diht of ours, but whose speed verily stands in inverse ratio For the life of the Spanish rabbit is passed in the les and hawks overhead, he never willingly shows in the open by daylight, or if forced to it, then terror lends wings to his feet The death of a hare, however, represents to the cazador the climax of terrestrial triuht 4-1/2 lbs) is held aloft by the hind-legs, a subject for adain and again to a chorus of soliloquising ejaculations, ”Grande coh extree-seasons (when in Septeether, blocking their transit to Africa, Andalucia is crammed with accumulated quails), yet represents but a s to boot Neither of these attributes cole-barrel; and similar reasons bear, with increased force, on the case of snipe These gaun

Bags of twenty brace of quail (and in former years of forty or fifty brace)next day, never a quail will be found

In spring, again, great numbers pass northward, but as_ of Guadalquivir and on the plains of Castile At that season quail are chiefly taken by nets; but on syste no space for descriptive detail Put briefly, in Andalucia the fowler spreads a gossa alongside, by means of a _pito_ (an instrument that exactly reproduces the dactylic call-note of the quarry) induces every coht precisely upon the outspread snare So perfect is the imitation that quail will even run over the fowler's prostrate for call-birds (hung in cages on poles) are substituted for the _pito_, and the net is more of a fixture--s left uncut expressly to attract quail to definite points

The Andalucian quail frequents palmetto-scrub and is very local--rarely can more than two or three couple be killed in a day, and that only in Septe with the turtle-doves--the latter a bird that surely deserves passing note, since few are s by h this country every autumn

The conditions above indicated prevail over a vast proportion of rural Spain, which thus presents sunner, however huions where the landowners, though in no sense ”preserving,” yet prohibit free entry on their properties owing to da cattle on to cultivation in a land where no fences exist, and so on Naturally such ground carriesreceived, fair and sometimes excellent sport is attainable Thus, on one such property the tangled woods of wild olive abound oodcock, though difficulties are presented by the impenetrable character of the briar-bound thickets Were ”rides” cut and clearings enlarged quite large bags of woodcockcarry a fair stock of partridge, and we have often killed forty or fifty snipe in thewill serve as an exaround (two guns--S D and B F B):--

+--------------------------------------------------------------+ | | Nov 13 | Nov 14 | Nov 15 | Total | +-------------------+----------+----------+----------+---------+ | Snipe | 101 | 32 | 155 | 288 | | Ducks and Teal | 2 | 9 | 3 | 14 | | Wild-Geese | 3 ||| 3 | | Sundries ||| 4 | 4 | | +----------+----------+----------+---------+ | | 105 | 41 | 162 | 309 | +--------------------------------------------------------------+

Three days in February on siround, but in an unfavourable season, yielded 79 snipe, 5 woodcock, 19 golden plovers, 3 lesser bustard, a hare, and a few sundries