40 



WILD SPAIN. 



then, very literally, "the game is up" and the pack escapes 

 unharmed. When the birds are found settled on a hillside, 

 it is sometimes not difficult to place the guns on the 

 reverse slope, and so near the summit that the sportsman, 

 stretched full length on the earth, has the birds within 

 shot almost before their danger is exposed. But it must 

 be noted that the sight of the bustard is extraordinarily 

 keen, and the shghtest unusual object on the monotonous 

 plain is sure to be detected. As a rule, if the gunner can 

 see the bustards, they too will have seen him and will 

 swerve from their course before approaching within range. 



But, generally speaking (except during the spring- 

 shooting), there is hardly a vestige of anything like covert 

 for the gunner : sometimes by lucky chance, a dry water- 

 course may be available, or a solitary clump of palmettos 

 — even a few dead thistles may prove invaluable. These 

 two circumstances explain the numerous disappointments 

 that attend bustard-driving on the corn-plains. 



Time being allowed to place the guns, two or three men 

 start to ride round the bustards at considerable distance, 

 gradually approaching them from a direction which will 

 incline their flight towards the hidden guns. Through 

 long practice these men become very expert ; more than 

 once we have seen a pack of the most stiff-necked un- 

 drivable bustards turned in mid-flight by a judicious 

 gallop — executed at the very nick of time— and directed 

 right towards the guns ; and we have also known birds so 

 delicately treated that instead of rising l)efore the slowly- 

 advancing horsemen, they have quietly walked away and 

 startled the sportsman by striding over a ridge within a 

 few yards of his prostrate form. 



In speaking of hills, ridges. Sec, the words are used 

 in a relative sense. Broken ground is the exception in 

 any district much affected by bustard ; and therefore 

 the most must be made of the sHglit undulations which 

 these rolling plains afford. When a party of five or six 

 guns are well placed, it is unusual for the pack to get away 

 without offering a shot to one or more of the sportsmen. 

 Strange to say, they not infrequently escape. We know 



