324 SPORT IN EUROPE 



mile points and over are not uncommon. On an average, when hounds hunted twice a 

 week, the kills during the season were from ten to fourteen brace, and more than twice 

 that number ran to ground. 



There is a breed of hounds in the north of Spain called sabuesos, very much the type 

 of an English foxhound. They are used in hunting wild boar, deer, etc , and they have 

 excellent nose and tongue. It is a great pity that this breed is not improved by 

 systematic breeding and selection of sires and dams, as I believe they would make most 

 useful hounds. 



Hares and rabbits are in Spain what they are elsewhere, and 



call for no special remark. Salamanca is rather famous for big bags 



of hares, and they are also coursed with greyhounds, 



P , , . though chiefly by the peasants, in Castilla. Rabbits, 



everywhere plentiful, seem to be on the increase. The 



favourite method is shootincr them over doifs, but both driving- and 



ferreting are extensively practised. 



I now come to the birds, which range from the great bustard, 

 the finest sporting bird perhaps in Europe, to the wild fowl of 

 the marshes. 



The great bustard is most plentiful on the southern plains, being 



comparatively scarce in some of the northern provinces. Like all 



dwellers of the plains, the bird is far - sighted and 



B sta d suspicious, but may generally be approached in a 

 bullock cart. The cart is slowly driven in circles 

 round and round the spot where the birds were last seen, and at 

 every available cover a gunner dismounts and lies down in readiness. 

 Eventually the cart gets quite near the birds and stops suddenly, 

 when the birds rise and may or may not fly over one of the ambushed 



