340 Unexplored Spain 



commanding point and salient angle or other local "advantage" 

 in the terrain. 



Such drives necessarily occupy more time;- moreover, the precise 

 lines of entry along which game may approach are less restricted — 

 hence follows an even greater demand on that vigilance already 

 emphasised. l>ut to the liunter tlie mental gratification, the 

 sense of dominion achieved, is ample reward when his deep-laid 

 plans succeed and when along one or more of his ambushed lines 

 the cunning carnivorae pursue an unsuspecting course. 



Nature herself may assist by signs which set the expectant 

 hunter yet more instantly alert. A distant kite suddenly 

 swervino- or checking its tiiglit lias seen something. The 

 chattering of a band of magpies may only mean that they have 

 struck a "find," say a dead rabbit — tacitus pasci si posset 

 corvus, etc. But it may easily indicate a moving nocturnal, and 

 such . signs should never be ignored. Similarly a covey of 

 partridges springing with continued cackling is a certain token 

 of the presence of an enemy ; while a terrified-looking rabbit, 

 with staring eye and ears laid back, means that an interview is 

 then instantly impending. 



It may be necessary (as where a desert-stretch flanks the beat) 

 to place "stops" far outside. These are as important as in a 

 grouse-drive, but quite tenfold more difiicult to array. 



In these more extensive operations the lynx, in evading the 

 guns, is sometimes intercepted by the advancing pack behind. 

 Then, if by luck the cat can be forced into the open, she goes 

 off" at fine speed in great bounds, as a leopard covers the veld, 

 and (the horses in this case being picketed close by) may some- 

 times be " tree'd " or run to bay in some distant thicket. In 

 that case the assistance of the hunters is needed, for a lynx at 

 bay will hold-up a whole pack of podencos, sitting erect on her 

 haunches with her back to the bush and dealing half-arm blows 

 with lightning speed. These podencos, it should be explained, 

 are not intended to close, since all high-couraged dogs, we find, 

 meet a speedy death from the tusks of wild-boars. 



When pressed in the open, we have seen a lynx deliberately 

 pass through deep water that lay in her line of flight. 



3. Calling. — The coney was ever a puny folk, yet in Tarshish 

 he thrives and multiplies amidst numberless foes aloft and alow. 

 From the heavens above fierce eyes directing hooked beaks and 



