Records in Spanish Wildfowling 135 
beyond my reach when there occurred this strange thing. A 
peregrine falcon had for some time been hanging around study- 
ing with envious eye the dozen or two dead ducks stuck up 
around my post; now he swept away, as it were, to intercept 
that feathered avalanche on my right, with the result that the 
third and last cloud, being cut off, doubled back in tumultuous 
confusion right in my face—what a spectacle! The puny twelve- 
bore brought down a perfect shower of teal—probably 30 or 
more fell all around me. I gathered 18 as fast as the sticky mud 
allowed; others fluttered here and there beyond reach; how 
many in all escaped to feed marsh-harriers none can tell. 
Another incident with peregrine :—I had just taken post for 
night-flighting at the Albacias, when, as dusk fell, a big bird 
appeared in the gloom making, with laboured flight, directly 
towards me. Thinking (though doubtfully) that it was a goose, 
I fired. ‘The stranger proved to be a beautiful adult peregrine, 
carrying in its claws a marbled duck, and the pair are now set 
up in my collection. 
Figures such as the following are apt to provoke two senti- 
ments: (1) that they are not true, or that (2), being true, such 
results must be easy of attainment. The first we pass over. As 
regards the second, the assumption ignores the nature and 
essential character of wildfowl. 
These, being cosmopolitans, remain precisely the same wher- 
ever on the earth’s surface they happen to be found. It is their 
sky they change, not their natural disposition or their fixed 
habits, when wildfowl shift their homes. The difficulty is that 
not half-a-dozen men in a thousand understand wildfowl or the 
supreme difficulty which their pursuit entails, whether in Spain, 
England, or elsewhere. 
In England, it is true, such results are out of the question, 
simply because the country is highly drained, cultivated, and 
populous. Were it desired to recover for England those immigrant 
hosts—the operation would not be impossible—break down the 
Bedford Level and flood five counties! Then you might enjoy in 
the Midlands such scenes as to-day we see in Spain. 
As a matter of simple fact— and this we state without 
suspicion of egotism, or careless should such uncharitably be 
imputed—the results recorded below represent even for Spain 
