SPAIN 325 



guns. They may also be stalked with a rifle. So numerous are they 

 in some of the flat country, that it is no uncommon sight to see, 

 from the windows of the train between Jerez and Se villa, flocks 

 of thirty or forty. Bustards are also shot in drives, and many 

 sportsmen prefer this before all other methods. 



The little bustard is without doubt the most astute bird of the 

 plains, and is as a rule only shot in the stubble during 

 the quail season. Exceptional cases may happen, how- g^g^^^j.^ 

 ever, in which the birds are so intent on feeding that 

 considerable bags are made, but these occasions must be prized as 

 very rare. 



The red-leg is the common partridge of Spain, but the grey bird 



is also found in the mountains of Santander and elsewhere. The 



season lasts from the i sth Auoust to 15th January, and 



^ ft J J Partridge. 



the birds are shot over dogs or driven. In the former 

 case, the bags are necessarily small, for the birds are wild in even 

 the best preserves, and very fond of running, besides which they 

 occur most freely in broken ground. They are less wild perhaps 

 in parts of Galicia, but even there twelve brace to each gun is 

 regarded as an uncommonly good bag over dogs. At the drives, 

 on the other hand, the numbers killed are a very different matter, 

 and wonderful bags of two or three hundred head in the day are made 

 on such preserves as those belonging to the Marquis of Mudela, 

 the Duchess of Fernan-Nunez, the Marquis of Santurce. and the 

 Marquis of la Torrecilla. It must, however, be borne in mind that 

 there is no artificial breeding in Spain, and that we have moreover 

 to contend with two orrave evils. The first of these is natural, and 



