Andalucia and its Big Game 65 



ten seconds. Botli were ten-pointers, with strong black horns, 

 ivory -tipped. During that afternoon I got a big boar at Mae- 

 Corra ; and B., who had set out at 4 a.m., twenty-three geese 

 at the Cardo-Inchal. 



Far North, January 31, 1907. — First beat by the "Eagles' 

 Nest" (in the biggest cork-oak we ever saw, the imperial bird 

 soaring off as we rode up). Brushwood everywhere tall and 

 dense, giving no view. On placing me the keeper remarked, 

 " By this little glade (canuto) deer must break, but amidst such 

 jungle will need im tiro de merito ! " Four stags broke, two 

 were missed, but one secured — seven points on one horn, the 

 other broken. So dense is the bush here that a lynx ran almost 

 over the writer's post, yet had vanished from sight ere gun could 

 be brought to shoulder. In the next beat, La Querencia del 

 Macho (again all dense bush), B. shot two really grand companion 

 stags, but again one of these had a broken horn. This animal 

 while at bay so injured the spine of one of our dogs that it had 

 to be killed two days later. ^ A third beat added one more big- 

 stag, and the day's result — four stags with only two " heads " — 

 is so curious that we oive the detail : — 



Amidst forest or in dense jungle (such as last described) 

 where no distant view is possible, it is usually advisable to watch 

 outwards — that is, w^ith back towards the beat, relying on ears 



' This is only the second instance in thirty or forty years of a wounded or "bayed" 

 stag killing a dog. In the Culata del Faro, we remember, many years ago, a stag shot 

 through the lungs, and which was brought to bay close behind the writer's post, tossing 

 a|)t«/r7ico clean over its head, and so injuring it that the dog had to be destroyed at once. 



- The initials are those of our late frieml Colonel Brymer of Ilsington, Dorset, formerly 

 M.P. for that county, and who was a frequent visitor to Spain, where, alas ! his death 

 occurred while we write this chapter (May 1909). A unique exploit of the Colonel's during 

 his last shooting-trip may fitly be recorded. On February 5, 1909, at the Culata del 

 Faginado, four big stags broke in a clump past his post on a pine-crowned ridge in the 

 forest. Two he dropped right and left ; then reloading one barrel, killed a third ere the 

 survivors had vanished from sight. These three stags tarried thirty-four points, the best 

 head taping 30^ inches by 27 inches in width, and 4J inches basal circumference. 



F 



