AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 345 



No. 6, and with that weight of metal never failed to 

 secure, and generally to kill " stone-dead," any 

 Bustard that passed within reasonable distance, 

 whilst many a Wild Goose when shot at at the same 

 ranges has merely shaken himself, cackled, and gone 

 on unhurt. It seems still harder to believe that I 

 have seen one or two famous pigeon-shots, besides 

 many other fair performers with the fowling-piece, 

 entirely miss Great Bustards at easy distances. The 

 late Captain of my yacht, for instance, who, though 

 very uncertain as a shooter, could often knock down 

 a Wild Duck and sometimes a Snipe, and certainly 

 had more fair chances at Bustards in Spain than any 

 other of our variously composed parties, only fairly 

 killed one ; but he was by no means the only one of 

 us who was, I presume, fairly puzzled by these birds 

 coming straight at or over him. 



In the expeditions just described we considered 

 three or four Bustards as a fair bag not by any 

 means on account of their scarcity, but because the 

 flocks seldom settled again within three or four miles 

 of their first rise, and not very often gave a chance to 

 more than one or two of our party in any one drive ; 

 below Seville, however, they behaved very differently, 

 as they are of course much less liable to disturbance 

 in the great marshes and pastures than when amongst 

 the corn-growing downs. The greater part of our 

 Bustard-hunting below Seville was carried out from 

 my yacht, at anchor in the river, and there, with a 

 steam-launch and two or three mounted drivers, we 

 saved a great deal of time and occasionally met with 

 very fair success, besides picking up a few Ducks of 

 various species, an occasional Grey-lag Goose, a 

 Crane, Sand-Grouse, Snipes, Avocets, Godwits, 

 Greenshanks, and other Waders. These great plains, 



