io8 Unexplored Spain 



the c-eiitre of the particular lagoon, whither, of recent days, the 

 ducks have been observed to resort in greatest abundance from 

 noon onwards. 



The gunner lies expectant on the cut rushes which strew the 

 bottom-boards of his cajon — a box-shaped punt some 7 feet long 

 by 2\ broad, which is concealed by being thrust bodily in 

 the midst of the biggest samphire bush available. . The craft 

 nevertheless is still afloat and, though flat-bottomed, is yet 

 terribly crank, and any sudden movement to port or starboard 

 threatens to capsize the entire outfit. 



To allay the tense suspicion of flighting wildfowl, several of 

 the adjacent Ijushes for fifty yards around have been heightened 

 by the addition of a cut bough or two — the idea being to induce 

 a theory among passing ducks merely that this particular spot 

 seems peculiarly fav^ourable to samphire-growth — that and nothing 

 more. 



In setting up decoys, while many are posed m lifelike 

 attitudes, it is advisable to hang a few (especially white-plumaged 

 species, such as pintail, shoveler, and wigeon-drakes) in almost 

 vertical positions, in order to induce a belief among hungry in- 

 comers that these birds are " turning-up " to feast on abundant 

 subaquatic plants beneath. 



This intermittent flight is naturally irregular, hunger 

 attecting greater or less numbers on difterent days ; but when 

 it comes off" in force alfords the cream of wildfowling from 

 before noon till the sun droops in the west. During the last 

 hour before he dips not a wing moves. 



Duck-shooting thus resolves itself into two main systems : 

 (1) intercepting the fowl on flight at dawn, and later (2) 

 awaiting their incoming at expected points. 



A good shoot may sometimes be engineered by cutting a 

 broad "ride" through the samphire along some flight -line, 

 thereby forming an open channel between two lucios. Ducks 

 which have hitherto flown sky-high in order to cross the danger- 

 zone will now pass quite low along the new waterway, and even 

 prefer it to crossing the cover at hazard, however high. 



A typical day's fowling in mid-marisma may be described. 

 The night has been spent in a reed-built hut charmingly situate 

 on a mud- islet half- an -acre in extent, and commanding un- 

 equalled views of flooded and featureless marisma. At 4 a.m. we 



