20 WILD GEESE. 
that you cannot^ as in England^ hear the sound of the duck's 
wings. 
Immense numbers of Wild Geese are found in the winter 
months about the Laguria de la Janda, and below Seville, in 
the marshes of the Guadalquivir. They are of course very 
difficult to " get at -^^ but as they pass the day on the ground 
at the edge of the water, and always have certain favourite 
spots to which they resort, they are to be got by digging or 
making " hides '^ at the places they most frequent. In the 
morning, at sunrise, they collect on the water, in some places 
in hundreds, and swim about feeding for an hour or two on 
some substance which they pick up from the bottom of the 
shallow water ; after this they disperse and take to the shore, 
where, if left undisturbed, they pass the day sleeping and 
pluming themselves. There is one of these goose-haunts near 
the Palacio of the Goto del Rey, a little to the south-east of it. 
One morning in January, having the day previously made a 
hide among some tufts of rushes, I went and laid up before 
sunrise to await the geese, which arrived by degrees in flight 
after flight, till there must have been within a mile of me, at 
the lowest computation, between tlu'ce and four thousand ; I 
shall never forget the sight, and I lay concealed watching 
them for at least two hours. I could not distinguish amongst 
them more than one lot of about a dozen Bean-Geese {Anser 
dc/^y^^tyM scgetum) ; the remainder were all Grey Lag { A. ferus). ,jc^. 
Some huudi'eds were within about a hundred yards of me, 
and it was very amusing to see them feeding, fighting, and 
playing with one another ; but somehow they were evidently 
suspicious of the patch of spiky rushes in which I was lying 
flat in the slight hole which I had made between two tufts of 
rushes and covered over with others dug up by the roots, and 
arranged so as to look as if growing. Unable to turn on my 
side or move in the least, I was so cramped that it was all I 
could do to remain there; but after a time a large lot of 
geese began to set in towards my position, and in a few 
minutes more I should have had a good family shot. I had 
plenty of chances of firing, but could not have got more than 
a couple ; besides which I wished to watch them, so waited 
