16 INTBODUCTION. 



within reach of the European sportsman, excepting wild pigs, 

 which are only to be obtained by the battue system of driving 

 the jungle with beaters and dogs, sitting for hours waiting for the 

 chance of a shot, a class of amusement dignified by the name of 

 a " boar-hunt " ; sometimes, where the country is sufficiently 

 open, the real sport of pig-sticking can be had. 



No doubt further in the interior there is other large game ; 

 but with the exception of shooting an occasional gazelle and a 

 few pigs, there is no opportunity of using the rifle. 



The small-game shooting is very good ; the abundance of 

 Barbary Partridges in some districts is miraculous ; but when 

 killed they are of little value in a culinary point of view, being 

 more dry and tasteless than the Spanish Redleg (Caccabis rufa], 

 now SQ well known in many parts of England. 



The number of Snipe in some seasons is very great, especially 

 at Meshree el Haddar, where, and also at Ras el Doura, Larache, 

 Sharf el Akab, Martine near Tetuan, and Esmir near Ceuta, as 

 good snipe- and wildfowl-shooting as may be wished for can 

 be obtained. But it is, as ever in Europe with Snipe, always 

 uncertain sport, as one day swarms are met with, and perhaps on 

 the next day hardly any are to be found. The absence of roads 

 and bridges renders the country in wet weather at times impossible 

 to travel over, the tracks becoming a succession of mudholes, 

 and the rivers impassable torrents. This, added to the unpleasant 

 certainty of living under canvas during rainy weather, is a great 

 drawback to winter shooting. 



Another, in my opinion insuperable, objection to shooting in 

 Morocco is, that if any great quantity of game be bagged, it 

 has to be thrown away, as, unless within twenty miles or so of 

 Tangier, it is useless. The Moors, being Mahometans, will 

 not eat any thing killed by a Christian or infidel ; and killing 

 for the mere sake of slaughter does not come within the creed 

 of a true sportsman. In Spain all this is very different, as any 

 one and every one is only too glad to accept of the surplus game. 



