WILD-FOWL SHOOTING. 19 
edges of the Marisma, or delta of the Guadalquivir, below 
Seville, especially just beyond Coria del Rio, and near the 
Goto del Rey and the Goto Donana; one spot near the 
Palacio of the former place, las Garnicerias, is excellent. 
At Gasa Vieja or, more properly speaking, Gasas Viejas, 
some forty miles from Gibraltar, is very good ground, parti- 
cularly in the first part of the season ; there are also good 
marshes near Vejer. Late in the season, near Taivilla and 
Tapatanilla, on the road fi*om Tarifa to Vejer, at times Snipe 
are also to be found very plentifully. 
The wildfowl- or duck-shooting in dry seasons is very fair 
in the early part of the winter, before the lagoons and rivers 
are filled up by the rains, there being then very few wet spots, 
and the birds crowd together in the small pools which remain 
between the high banks of the river-beds, and can be easily 
approached ; but later on, when these streams are brimful or, 
rather, overflow their banks, and when the lagunas are sheets 
of water without rushes or cover of any sort at the edges, it 
is almost impossible to shoot ducks by day except by making 
'^ hides " with sticks and stones, and sending some one round 
and trying to have them driven over you. At flight some- 
times very fair sport is to be had for one or two nights ; but 
after that the fowl know the place, and either come very late 
or avoid it altogether. For flight-shooting a good retriever is 
necessary ; for it is, in the dark, impossible to find the spoil ; 
and if left till morning, the Marsh- Harriers are at them by 
break of day, leaving nothing but bones and feathers. To 
my mind there is very great charm in flight-shooting, though 
sometimes it is hot work while it lasts ; for it is over in about 
half an hour, and you cannot, even with a breech-loader, load 
quickly enough. It requires, too, considerable skill in judging 
the distance, and sharpness of vision in being able to catch a 
glimpse of the ducks as they pass over. It is a great help if 
you can place yourself so that you face the west, and thus get 
the birds in the evening light, when they can be seen coming 
a very long way oflf; but if they come from the eastward, 
and you are obliged to face that way, they never show 
till close on you ; and the frogs make such a noise, croaking, 
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