44 



Unexplored Spain 



superfluous, even where not actually niiseliievous. For practical 

 purposes there exists but one European species, though it has, 

 even within Spain, its local varieties ; while, further afield, 

 geographical and climatic divergencies naturally tend to increase.^ 

 We cannot claim for our lowland deer of Donana a hiixh 

 standard of comparative quality ; they are, in fact, the smallest 

 race in Spain, almost puny as compared with her mountain breed 

 — smaller also than the Barbary stag. Clean weights here rarely 

 exceed 200 lbs., while a 30-in. head must be accounted beyond 

 the average. The general type, both of horn and V)ody, is illus- 

 trated by yarious photos and drawings in this book. 



Deer -shooting in Spain takes 

 place in the winter. The rutting 

 season commences at the end of 

 August, terminating early in Octo- 

 ber, and stags have recovered con- 

 dition by the end of November. 



The habits of red deer being, liere 

 as elsewhere, strictly nocturnal, and 

 the country densely clad with bush, 

 it follows that these animals are 

 seldom seen amove during daylight. 

 Hence deer -stalking, properly so 

 called, is not availal)le, nor is [the 

 method much esteemed in Spain. In Scotland one may detect 

 deer, though it be but a tip of an antler, when couched in the 

 tallest heather or fern. Here, where heather grows six or eight 

 feet in height with a bewildering jumble of other shrubbery of 

 like proportions, no such view is possible. Hence " driving " is 

 in Spain the usual method of deer-shooting, whether in mountain 

 or lowland. 



There is, nevertheless, one opportunity of stalking which 

 (though not regarded with favour) has yet afforded us delightful 

 mornings, and to which a few lines of description are due. The 

 plan is based upon cutting-out the deer as they return from their 



1 No offence to our scieiititic friends aforesaid. We recognise tlieir argument and resjjeet 

 its thorougliness, though regarding it as occasionally misdirected. Possibly in their splendid 

 zeal they overlook the danger of reducing scientific classification to a mere monopoly 

 confined to a few score of professors, specialists, and cabinet-naturalists, instead of serving as 

 an aid and general guide (as is surely its true intention) to thousands of less learned 

 students. Over-elaboration is apt to beget chaos. 



ABNORMAL CAST ANTLER 

 (Picked up in Donana.) 



