250 Unexplored Spain 



with supreme authority, and whose directions all must obey 

 instantly and implicitly. 



Needless to say, that leader must possess a thorougli knowledge 

 both of the habits of bustard and the lie of a country — along with 

 the rather rare faculty of diagnosing at a glance its " advantages," 

 its dangers, and its salient points over some half-league of space. 

 None too common an attribute that, where all the wide prospect 

 is grey or green, varying according to ever-changing lights, and 

 the downlands so gently graded as occasionally to deceive the 

 very elect. JMuch of the bustard-country appears all but Hat, 

 so slight are its folds and undulations ; while even the more 

 favouring regions are rarely so boldly contoured as Salisbury 

 Plain. The leader must combine some of the qualities of a 

 field-marshal with the skill of a deer-stalker, and a bit of red- 

 Indian sleuth thrown in. Luckily, such masters of the craft are 

 not entirely lacking to us. 



The thoughts revolving in the leader's mind during his 

 brief survey follow these general lines : First, which is (a) the 

 favourite and (b) the most favourable line of flight of those 

 bustards when disturbed ; secondly, where can guns best be 

 placed athwart that line ; thirdly, how can the guns reach these 

 points unseen? A condition precedent to success is that the 

 iiring-liue shall be drawn around the bustards fairly close up, yet 

 without their knowledge. Now with wild-game in open country 

 devoid of fences, hollows, or covert of any description that problem 

 presents initial difficulties that may well appear insuperable. 

 But they are rarely quite so. It is here that the fieldcraft of the 

 leader comes in. He has detected some slight fold that will 

 shelter horsemen up to a given point, and beyond that, screen 

 a crouching figure to within 300 yards of the unconscious 

 hamlada. Rarely do watercourses or valleys of sufficient depth 

 lend a welcome aid ; recourse must usually be had to the reverse 

 slope of the hill whereon the bustards happen to be. Without 

 a halt, the party ride round till out of sight. At the farthest 

 safe advance, the guns dismount and proceed to spread themselves 

 out— so far as possible in a semicircle — around the focal point. ' 

 At 80 yards apart, each lies prone on earth, utilising such shelter 



' The horses, if ground permits, may be utilised as -'stops" to extreme right and left of 

 the drive, otherwise they must be concealed in some convenient hollow in charge of a boy 

 or two. 



