Wild-Geese in Spain 117 
From the turrets of our shooting-lodge one’s eye surveyed—no 
longer an inland sea, but a monotone of sun-baked mud ; inspec- 
tion through binoculars revealed the fact that this whole space 
was dotted with troops of well, a friend who was with us 
thought they were sheep; but which, in fact, were bands of 
greylag geese. 
The fluctuations of Spanish seasons—varying from Noachian 
deluge to Saharan drought—necessarily react upon the habits of 
wildfowl. These changes are one of the charms of the country ; 
at any rate, they “stretch out” the fowler to devise some new 
thing. 
Those battalions of greylags posted out there on a vantage- 
ground where a mouse garcia. 
might be a prominent ob- \ fa 
ject at 100 yards, how can X, 
they be reduced to posses- P ae 
. . : STOP O 
sion? Our friend aforesaid _ ae site. A 
replies that theundertaking = “ST a i 
appears humanly impos- \ wae f 
sible. We have, neverthe- ~ Ba I 
less, elaborated a system \ ae 
of driving, by which in Poke ee 
dry years the greylag 
geese may be obtained with some degree of certainty. 
This morning (the last of January) we rode forth, four guns 
and four keepers, across that plain. Upon approaching the pack 
of geese selected, one keeper rides to a position rather above 
the “ half-wind ” line, and there halts as a “stop.”” The remaining 
seven ride on till, at a silent signal, No. 1 gun, without checking 
his horse, passes the bridle forward and rolls out of the saddle with 
gun and gear, lying at once flat as a flounder on the bare dry 
mud. At intervals of eighty yards each successive gun does the 
same, the four being now extended in a half-moon that commands 
nearly a quarter-mile of space. The three keepers (leading the 
other horses) continue riding forward in circular course till a 
second “stop” is placed in the right flank corresponding with 
the one already posted on the left. The last pair now complete 
the circuit by riding round to windward of the game, separating 
by 200 yards as that position is attained. (See diagram.) 
How are these four guns to conceal themselves on perfectly 
