37] 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 



WILDPOWLING IN THE WILDEBNESS. 



I. — A Wet Winter : A Recokd of Difficulties and 

 Disappointments. 



The wildfowl- shooting of the Peninsula in favourable 

 seasons and situations is probably equal to any in Europe. 

 But much depends on the place, and everything on the 

 season. There are plenty of provinces and miles of 

 marsh-land where the hardest work is barely rewarded by 

 a pair or two of ducks, or perhaps five couple of snipe, 

 and where many a long day will be registered blank. Then, 

 as just stated, everything depends on the weather. For 

 climatic conditions vary extremely as between one winter 

 and another. Some Spanish winters are dry and rainless ; 

 hardly any moisture remaining save in certain favoured 

 spots ; and to these sparse green oases throng the aquatic 

 hosts. Here, at such times, come the red-letter days for 

 the fowler. 



But Spanish winters are not always dry; on the con- 

 trary, it frequently happens that the rains set in in autumn 

 with semi-tropical fury, converting this drainless land into 

 one vast swamp, and inundating the marismas till they 

 grow into inland seas. The difference between a wet and a 

 dry winter is marvellous. We propose in this chapter to 

 describe the somewhat indifferent sport of a wet winter, 

 even in a good locality, together with its effect on the 

 habits and distribution of wildfowl. 



The winter of 1887-8 will serve as a typical example. 

 In November the rain set in ; during December it descended 

 day after day, and by the- end of the month the swollen 



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