SPAIN 327 



a o-ood quail season in Spain depends largely on die energy with which 

 the Governor of the province of Cadiz prevents the netting of the 

 weary birds on their first arrival on the coast. Properly protected 

 for a day or two, until they recover, the quail soon spread over the 

 country. 



Woodcock are found in winter throughout the country, and in 



hard winters good bags are made in Guipuzcoa. In 



. , , Woodcock 



.1897-8 It IS said that as many as 17,000 were ex- ^ c jog 



ported from here to France. Snipe are more numer- 

 ous in the southern provinces than in the north, but I cannot see 

 that either bird calls for special note. 



I doubt, however, whether there is any finer duck-shooting to be 

 had in Europe than at Daimiel, near Manzaneres, in La Mancha. 

 The laeoons are rented at high figures by a few sports- 

 men, and there are four shoots in the year, to each of 

 which each tenant is allowed to invite one guest. The keepers 

 manage the shooting admirably. You have to get punted to your 

 post before daylight, and the shooting lasts for about three hours 

 in the morning, with a further hour's flighting in the evening. Eight 

 euns have been known to bag close on a thousand head of mallard 

 and teal, with other kinds of duck, and one year three swans were 

 shot, thoucrh these birds are rare in Spain. The late king once 

 o-ot ^81 duck to his own gun in three hours and a half. After 

 Daimiel, the most famous wild-fowl resort is La Albufera, in Valencia, 

 where very large bags are made in the rice-fields. The Goto de 

 Onana, near Sevilla, also gives excellent duck-shooting, and in fact 

 nearly every river and marsh may be drawn for duck in winter. Wild 



