Val 



encia 327 



wigeon, teal, and shoveller, together with a few shelducks and 

 many common and red-crested pocliards. Flamingoes and spoon- 

 bills frequent the shallows in small numbers. 



As individual instances ; from a replaza that cost 900 pesetas 

 (say £40), and which was the 7iinth in point of price that year, 

 one ojun fired 700 cartridojes in a sing-le mornino-. 



The best 7rplaza^at least the most expensive (it cost 1500 

 pesetas) — was tenanted last winter by friends from whose 

 experiences, not too encouraging, we gather : At the first shoot 

 (November 13) the post was occupied by a single gun, who, after 

 firing 400 shots, was compelled to desist owing to injury to his 

 shoulder. "I believe," he writes, "I might have fired 1500 

 cartridges had I continued all day, but was obliged to leave early. 

 The boatmen had then gathered ninety — sixty ducks, thirty coot — 

 and expected to recover more." 



On November 28 the post was occupied by three guns : " No 

 day for duck, a blazing sun so hot that the reflection from the 

 water blistered our faces. The ducks mounted up high in air 

 and mostly cleared early in the proceedings, though some were 

 attracted by our 100 decoys. We killed ninety-six, mostly wigeon 

 and pochard, a few mallard and teal, besides twenty snipe. The 

 desideratum is a really rough day, but that at Valencia is past 

 praying for." 



The arrozales are run dry (and of course the shooting stopped) 

 by the middle of January. The water, in fact, is only kept up so 

 long solely for the sake of the shooting. So soon as its level has 

 fallen a couple of inches the fowl all leave directly. 



