Andalucia and its Big Game 77 



and spitting, barks and yowls greeted our ears as we crawled in, 

 while on reaching the cavern the green eyes of the lynx flashed 

 like electric lii-hts from a dark recess. Thouoh one hind-leo; 

 had been broken and the other damaged by a rifle-ball, yet she 

 held easy mastery over five or six dogs. Sitting bolt upright, 

 she kept the lot at bay with sweeping half-arm blows. Not 

 a dog dared close, and the brave feline had to be finished with the 

 lance. 



Mancha del Milagro, February 4, 1908. — The covert, we 

 knew by spoor, held a first-rate boar, and his most probable 

 salida (break-out) was at the foot of a perpendicular sand-wall, 

 Avithin fifty yards of which the writer held guard. Within brief 

 minutes the music of the pack corroborated what had been fore- 

 told by spoor. Twice the boar with crashing course encircled the 

 mancha within, passing close inside my post. Each moment T 

 watched for his appearance at the expected point on the right. 

 Then, without notice or sound of broken bough, suddenly he stood 

 outside on the left — almost beneath the gun's muzzle — not eight 

 feet away. Luckily (as he stood within my firing-lines) the boar 

 steadfastly gazed in the opposite direction, nor did I seek by 

 slightest movement to attract attention to my presence. For 

 some seconds we both remained thus, rigid. Then with sudden 

 decision the boar bounded off, fiying the gentle slope in front, 

 and ere he had passed a yard clear of the firing-line, fell dead 

 with a bullet placed in the precise spot. 



Weight, 164 lbs. clean, and grey as a donkey. 



A wounded boar should always be approached with caution. 

 Remember he is a powerful brute, very resolute, and furnished with 

 quite formidable armament, which, while life remains, he will use. 

 One of the biggest, after receiving a bullet slightly below and 

 behind the heart, went slowly on some fifty yards, when he 

 subsided, back up, among some green iris. Half an hour later the 

 writer silently approached from directly behind. At ten yards 

 the heaving flanks showed that plenty of life remained, and 

 beautiful scimitar-like tushes were conspicuous enough on either 

 side. I therefore quietly withdrew. On a keeper presently riding 

 up, the boar at once dashed on a dog, flung him aside (laying 

 open half his ribs), and charged the horse. The latter was 

 smartly handled and cleared, when the boar instantly turned on 



