326 SPORT IN EUROPE 



consists of the enormous numbers of eag-les, vultures, lynxes, and 



other vermin, which commit such damage as would, I fancy, make 



many an English keeper throw up his job broken-hearted. The 



second menace to our partridges is the poaching trick — I can call 



it nothing better — of shooting them with the help of call-birds, a 



practice that should at all costs be suppressed. The cage containing 



the call-bird is conveniently placed, and the gun hides close by, 



shooting the birds on the ground as they fly up. (It is even stated. 



though this sounds rather like a fable, that a well-bred call-bird will 



sulk if the gunner misses his birds !) Be this, however, as it may. 



it is certain that these call-birds are much prized, a really good one 



readily fetching five or six hundred pesetas, or as much as five-and- 



twenty sovereigns. There is a futile law that forbids your neighbour 



bringing a call-bird within one kilometre^ of your preserves, but as 



these birds are able to call up partridges a distance of two or three 



miles it will be seen that the prohibition is merely ridiculous, and 



it is devoutly to be hoped that more sensible legislation may soon 



come in force. 



Quail cross from Morocco in April, for breeding quarters, and 



quail-shooting opens in most provinces on ist August, but in Burgos, 



Soria, and Valladolid not until the loth. The birds 

 Quail. 



are shot over dogs in the stubble and pastures, and 



great bags are sometimes made. I recollect a party of five guns 



getting in one day near Siguenza no less than 490 brace. Burgos, 



Soria, Segovia, and Old Castilla are undoubtedly the finest localities 



for quail. It is a curious fact, and one perhaps worth recording, that 



* This is equivalent, roughly, to rather over three-fifths of a mile. 



