258 SPORT IN EUROPE 



and at sunset, decoy birds being used. On the lagoons, the sports- 

 men, each in his punt, go in a Hne along' the lagoons. It is very 

 difficult to shoot wild fjeese on account of the grreat heioht at which 

 they fly. 



As the fishino- in the Paul de Muoem, which is more than two 

 leagues long and very abundant in game, is rented to the Atalaya 

 On the family, only the tenants can shoot there. The sports- 



Lagoons and man, with one boatman, seated in a narrow, slender, 



flat-bottomed punt, avoiding the water-plants, glides 

 along the narrow channels which are formed in summer, and shoots 

 the game as it rises. 



In November, with the first cold weather, woodcock [galliuhold) 



appear, and, soon after, snipe {nai'se/'a). In the royal 



Woodcock 1 r TVT r i • 1 1 



J o • park ol Matra, more than once, eight guns, without 



drivers, have killed in one day a hundred woodcock. 

 I must, however, say that one of these guns was His Majesty's. 



In unenclosed lands woodcock and snipe are always shot over 

 dogs. The shooting of snipe at the mouth of the Aveiro, Ovar, 

 Sado, and in the Apostiga, an estate of the Duque de Palmella, 

 some thirty kilometres from Almada, is very famous. And what 

 so much astonishes foreioners in these shootino- excursions is that 



o o 



they take place under a radiant sun and a pure azure sky. 



I must now mention the migration of doves [ro/las), which on 



days of north-east winds, at the end of August or the 

 Turtle-doves. 



beginning of September, takes place along the whole 



coast of Portugal. Doves pass in flocks, in such numbers that they 



appear like clouds over the heads of the shooters. 



