WILDFOWLING IN THE WILDERNESS. 379 



pack rose on wing, amid deep Spanish execrations on the 

 mothers and female relatives of those malditos cochinos. 



The geese have particular spots along the shore to which 

 they show a predilection — usually the point of some flat 

 promontory or tongue of land, to which they daily resort. 

 By placing a few decoys before dawn, and lying in wait at 

 these querencias, several shots may be obtained at the 

 "morning flight." The difficulties of wild-goose shooting 

 are, however, proverbial, and these big Grey Lags are, 

 moreover, the hardest and most invulnerable fowl. Yet if 

 the bag is sometimes light, those mornings spent in the 

 marisma will never be regretted, nor the sights and sounds 

 heard during the lonely hours of vigil be forgotten. Within 

 one hundred yards of the damp hole where we lie hidden 

 are three or four separate packs of Grey Lags swimming on 

 the silvery water, while fresh parties constantly keep 

 arriving to join the assemblage, sailing with lowered 

 pinions and cautious croaks towards the fatal decoy. 



The geese of the Spanish marismas are principally 

 the Grey Lag (Anser ferus) and the Bean-goose {Anser 

 segetwn) in much less numbers. The latter usually flight 

 singly or in small trips ; their note is also different — 

 like that of a large gull. The Lesser White-fronted Goose 

 {Anser erythropus of Linnaeus), appears also to occur in the 

 marisma. Lord Lilford mentions having observed a single 

 example in company with Grey Lags, and has skins of 

 this small species obtained at Seville. As regards the 

 other European species, there is no evidence of their winter 

 range extending to Southern Spain, though it is possible 

 that stragglers of both the Pink-footed and White-fronted 

 Geese may occasionally do so. Of wild Swans we have 

 only once met with a bunch of four, as elsewhere related, and 

 one of our pateros told us he had killed two or three during 

 an exceptionally severe winter several years ago. He 

 regarded them as extremely unusual, and in fact did not 

 know what they were till he took them to San Lucar for 

 sale. 



Ducks and geese are not the only denizens of the wilder- 

 ness. The genus of wading birds is a natural complement, 



