176 BIG GAME SHOOTING 



38. If one or more beasts are put up by a sportsman or party 

 of sportsmen, and these beasts, being neither wounded by them nor 

 their dogs, are subsequently killed during their flight by another 

 party, those who have killed the game have an equal right to it 

 with those who first aroused and pursued it. 



But the wandering rifleman has little to fear from the law 

 in Spain ; on the contrary, if an expedition is planned and 

 carried out with due formality and regard to other people's 

 feelings, permission to shoot anywhere is rarely refused, assist- 

 ance even being offered as often as not by the proprietor to the 

 invader. 



Spanish sportsmen count the varieties of Caza may or ^ or 

 larger game, in their peninsula, to wit, red deer {Cervus ela- 

 ^hus), roe. deer {Cervus capreoliis), fallow deer {Cervus dama), 

 chamois {Antilope rupkapra), Spanish ibex {Caprd hispanica)^ 

 bear {Ursus arctos), wolf, fox, lynx {Felis pardi/ia), and wild 

 boar. 



Of these lynx and fox are only reckoned as large game \ 

 when killed by a rifle ball, while fallow deer can hardly be said 

 to exist in Spain in a truly wild state, although they come near 

 to it in Aranjuez, where they live free and unenclosed. 



As suggested before, * driving ' is the commonest form 

 of sport in Spain, but there are two or three old forms of 

 national sport still alive in the country, more picturesque and 

 more in keeping wnth the popular ideas of the chivalrous 

 Spaniard. 



Of these the chasse au sanglier in Estremadura, and the 

 pursuit of the bear by the oseros of the Asturias, are worth a 

 passing notice. 



AVhen the acorns are falling from the oaks during the still- 

 ness of a moonlit night in the magnificent Estremenian woods, 

 and the ripe chestnuts cover the ground, the valientes of the 

 district assemble and wait for the boars to come down from 

 their mountain fastnesses to feed. As soon as the snapping 

 of some dry twig announces the ' javato's ' (boar's) approach, a 

 hound trained to give tongue to boar only is slipped, and as 



