248 Unexplored Spain 
observing, at close quarters and still unsuspicious, these glorious 
game-birds at home on their private plains. The local idea is 
to fire through a slit previously made in the estéras; but some- 
how, when the cart stops and the game instantly rises, you find 
(despite care and practice) that the birds always fly in a direc- 
tion you cannot command or where the narrow slit forbids your 
covering them. Hence we adopted the plan of sliding off 
behind as the cart pulled up, thus firing the two barrels with 
perfect freedom. We have succeeded by this means in bringing 
to bag many pairs of bustard during a day’s manceuvring. 
V "AE 
BGs — 
SPANISH THISTLE AND STONECHAT 
We now come to the system of bustard-driving, which we 
regard as practically the only really legitimate method of dealing 
with this grand game. From the end of August onwards the 
young bustards are perfectly capable of taking care of themselves. 
The country is then cleared of crops, and while this precludes 
the birds being “done to death as in the weeks immediately 
preceding, yet the ubiquitous thistles (often of gigantic size, ten 
or twelve feet in height), charlock, and v/znagas provide welcome 
covert for concealing the guns, while the heat still renders the 
game somewhat more susceptible to the artifices of the fowler. 
This is the easiest period. 
