1 88 Unexplored Spain 



the cut reeds being left to remask the opeuiiig so soon as the punt has 

 entered. 



Somewhere between three and four o'clock in the morning the 

 sportsmen sally forth from the shooting-lodge (situate on the Isla de 

 los Asnos), each in his punt directing a course to the position he has 

 drawn by lot. In the boat, besides guus, cartridges, and loader (should 

 one be taken), are carried thirty or forty decoy-ducks fashioned of wood or 

 cork and painted to resemble in form and colour the various species of 

 duck expected at that particular season. 



Each of these decoys is furnished with a string and leaden weight 

 to act as an anchor. A fixed plummet directly beneath the lioating 

 decoy prevents its being blown over or upset. 



Generally speaking, the sportsman awaits the dawn in the same 

 boat in which he has reached his position, but should shallow water 

 prevent this, eitlier a lighter punt, capable of being carried by hand, 

 or some wooden boards are substituted as a seat. Having set out his 

 decoys, and arranged his ammunition, each gunner awaits in glorious 

 expectancy the moment when the first light of dawn shall set the 

 aquatic world amove. 



Singly they may come, or in bands and battalions — soon the whole 

 arc of heaven is serried with moving masses. Should the day prove 

 favourable, firing continues practically incessant till towards ten o'clock. 

 From that hour onwards it slackens perceptibly, ducks flying fewer and 

 fewer and at increasing intervals up to noon or thereby, when spoils are 

 collected and the day's sport is over. 



There are at most but four or five puestos, or gun-posts, at Daimiel, 

 and that only when ducks are in their fullest numbers. 



Under such conditions, and when all incidental conditions are 

 favourable, a bag of over 1000 ducks in the day has not infrequently 

 been registered. On such occasions it follows that individual guns must 

 gather from 200 to 300 duoks apiece. 



Almost incredible as are the results occasionally obtained under 

 favouring conditions, yet the duck-sliooting at Daimiel is nevertheless 

 subject to considerable variation in accordance with the sequence of the 

 season. The biggest totals are usually recorded during the months of 

 September, October, and Xovember in dry years. Tiie bags secured 

 at such periods are apt to run into extraordinary numbers, but 

 with this proviso, that quality is then sometimes inferior to quantity. 

 For the chief item at these earlier shoots consists of teal, with only a 

 sprinkling of mallard, wigeon, and shoveler, and, in some years, a few 

 coots. But at the later fivftdas (shootings), although game is usually 

 rather less abundant, it is then entirely composed of the bigger ducks — 

 beyond all in numbers being the mallard, pintail, wigeon, and red-crested 

 pochard, while an almost equal number of shovelers and common 

 pochards are also bagged. 



