Records in Spanish Wildfowlin^ 135 



beyond my reach when there occurred this strange thing. A 

 peregrine falcon had for some time been hanging around study- 

 ing with envious eye the dozen or two dead ducks stuck up 

 around my post ; now he swept away, as it were, to intercept 

 that feathered avalanche on my right, with the result that the 

 third and last cloud, being cut off, doubled back in tumultuous 

 confusion right in my face — what a spectacle ! The puny twelve- 

 bore brought down a perfect shower of teal — probably 30 or 

 more fell all around me. I gathered 18 as fast as the sticky mud 

 allowed ; others fluttered here and there beyond reach ; how 

 many in all escaped to feed marsh-harriers none can tell. 



Another incident with peregrine : — I had just taken post for 

 night-flighting at the Albacias, when, as dusk fell, a big bird 

 appeared in the gloom making, with lal)oured flight, directly 

 towards me. Thinking (though doubtfully) that it was a goose, 

 I fired. The stranger proved to be a beautiful adult peregrine, 

 carrying in its claws a marbled duck, and the pair are now set 

 up in my collection. 



Figures such as the following are apt to provoke two senti- 

 ments : (1) that they are not true, or that (2), being true, such 

 results must be easy of attainment. The first we pass over. As 

 regards the second, the assumption ignores the nature and 

 essential character of wildfowl. 



These, being cosmopolitans, remain precisely the same wher- 

 ever on the earth's surface they happen to be found. It is their 

 sky they change, not their natural disposition or their fixed 

 habits, when wildfowl shift their homes. The difliculty is that 

 not half-a-dozen men in a thousand understand wildfowl or the 

 supreme difliculty which their pursuit entails, whether in Spain, 

 England, or elsewhere. 



In England, it is true, such results are out of the question, 

 simply because the country is highly drained, cultivated, and 

 populous. Were it desired to recover for England those immigrant 

 hosts — the operation would not be impossible — break down the 

 Bedford Level and flood five counties ! Then you might enjoy in 

 the Midlands such scenes as to-day we see in Spain. 



As a matter of simple fact — and this we state without 

 suspicion of egotism, or careless should such uncharitably be 

 imputed — the results recorded below represent even for Spain 



