190 RAMBLES AFTER SPORT. 



just a '^ toothful/^ we waited. As tlie shades of eve came 

 on the tortolitas came in, until the trees seemed alive 

 with them. " Steady, now ! Don^t fire till you are 

 certain of potting five. There you are ; just rake that 

 branch of that pear-tree." I fired at, I should say, a 

 dozen birds all in a line. " Not so bad for a beginner," 

 said the doctor, as he wrung the heads off six. " Now 

 another shot like that, and we^ll do." We sat down 

 as before, and in ten minutes fresh birds came flying in, 

 and my second allowance bagged five. The number 

 of tortolitas (ring doves) here was incredible; they are 

 very difficult to kill flying, as they fly faster than any 

 bird I know except a quail, and carry off any quantity of 

 shot. We all three employed ourselves in picking the 

 victims, and in a few minutes we had eight or nine of 

 them fizzing over a wood fire, and sending forth a smell 

 almost maddening to our whetted appetites; they are 

 not bad eating, but, after all, were only a mouthful. *' The 

 casuela, Juana, the casuelaf' shouted the doctor. "Ah, 

 seiior, por dios ! you can^t hurry a casuela dej^ollo/' cried 

 Juana, who had, like all the natives, an undeviating faith 

 in, and awful respect for, " el doctor." However, at last 

 it was done^ and then we were happy. Gasuela de polio ! 

 I really think, if I were going to be hung next morning, 

 I could eat two or three platefuls of it over night. Have I 

 got the recipe ? No ; I^d give anything for it. You can't 

 get a casuela worthy of the name in any hotel in Chile ; 

 you must get out into the country, pull up at some 

 ranchOf and give the old woman ca7^te blanche and four 

 hours to make it in, and then you get it. That brute of 

 a doctor had the recipe, but of course heM never give it 

 up ; however, if anyone goes to work in the way de- 

 scribed at the end of this chapter, he will not be far out. 



