392 WILD SPAIN. 



Three other field-days followed with the wildfowl, 

 besides two interludes with small-game, and a two-days 

 snipe-shoot along the remote Eocina, which produced 

 353 snipe,* a few duck, teal, bitterns, and sundries : and, 

 when these happy days were over, the total score stood : — 



713 ducks. 8 quail. 



247 wild geese. 36 rabbits. 

 402 snipe. 7 hares. 



15 woodcock. 9 bitterns. 



161 partridge. 44 sundries. 



Among " sundries " were included common and ruddy 

 sheldrakes, gad wall and garganey, marbled ducks (a few), 

 common and white-eyed pochards (several), many coots, 

 an egret, stilts, and a pair of oyster-catchers. 



An Arctic Winter in Southern Spain. 



Never in our experience of well-nigh a quarter of a 

 century had such extremes of cold been known in this 

 sunny land as those of December, 1890. Nor will the 

 destruction wrought by that phenomenal winter be 

 remedied for many a long year, as brown and blasted olive- 

 yards, and thousands of acres of orange-groves, almost 

 every tree cut back to the bole and grafted as a last 

 resource, bear testimony. 



Here, in a sporting sense, is the report of that winter, 

 and its effects on fowl and fowling. December 8th, 1890. 

 — Not a drop of rain fell this year till the 2nd inst., and 

 the conditions for sport appeared as favourable as those 

 of last year (already described above). Cold as Siberia 

 was our ride to Vasquez's choza (November 28), in the 

 teeth of the bitter east wind which swept across the dry 

 marisma, and cut into our very marrow. 



Valiente helada va caer este noche ! say the keepers, and 



* The best day, walking for snipe, December 4, 1889, produced 

 232 snipe — six guns. 



