188 Unexplored Spain 
the cut reeds being left to remask the opening so soon as the punt has 
entered. 
Somewhere between three and four o'clock in the morning the 
sportsmen sally forth from the shooting-lodge (situate on the Isla de 
los Asnos), each in his punt directing a course to the position he has 
drawn by lot. In the boat, besides guns, cartridges, and loader (should 
one be taken), are carried thirty or forty decoy-ducks fashioned of wood or 
cork and painted to resemble in form and colour the various species of 
duck expected at that particular season. 
Each of these decoys is furnished with a string and leaden weight 
to act as an anchor. A fixed plummet directly beneath the floating 
decoy prevents its being blown over or upset. 
Generally speaking, the sportsman awaits the dawn in the same 
boat in which he has reached his position, but should shallow water 
prevent this, either a lighter punt, capable of being carried by hand, 
or some wooden boards are substituted as a seat. Having set out his 
decoys, and arranged his ammunition, each gunner awaits in glorious 
expectancy the moment when the first light of dawn shall set the 
aquatic world amove. 
Singly they may come, or in bands and battalions—soon the whole 
arc of heaven is serried with moving masses. Should the day prove 
favourable, firing continues practically incessant till towards ten o’clock. 
From that hour onwards it slackens perceptibly, ducks flying fewer and 
fewer and at increasing intervals up to noon or thereby, when spoils are 
collected and the day’s sport is over. 
There are at most but four or five pwestos, or gun-posts, at Daimiel, 
and that only when ducks are in their fullest numbers. 
Under such conditions, and when all incidental conditions are 
favourable, a bag of over 1000 ducks in the day has not infrequently 
been registered. On such occasions it follows that individual guns must 
gather from 200 to 300 ducks apiece. 
Almost incredible as are the results occasionally obtained under 
favouring conditions, yet the duck-shooting at Daimiel is nevertheless 
subject to considerable variation in accordance with the sequence of the 
season. The biggest totals are usually recorded during the months of 
September, October, and November in dry years. The bags secured 
at such periods are apt to run into extraordinary numbers, but 
with this proviso, that quality is then sometimes inferior to quantity. 
For the chief item at these earlier shoots consists of teal, with only a 
sprinkling of mallard, wigeon, and shoveler, and, in some years, a few 
coots. But at the later tiradas (shootings), although game is usually 
rather less abundant, it is then entirely composed of the bigger ducks— 
beyond all in numbers being the mallard, pintail, wigeon, and red-crested 
pochard, while an almost equal number of shovelers and common 
pochards are also bagged. 
