2.50 Unexplored Spain 
with supreme authority, and whose directions all must obey 
instantly and implicitly. 
Needless to say, that leader must possess a thorough knowledge 
both of the habits of bustard and the lie of a country—along with 
the rather rare faculty of diagnosing ata glance its “advantages,” 
its dangers, and its salient points over some half-league of space. 
None too common an attribute that, where all the wide prospect 
is grey or green, varying according to ever-changing lights, and 
the downlands so gently graded as occasionally to deceive the 
very elect. Much of the bustard-country appears all: but flat, 
so slight are its folds and undulations; while even the more 
favouring regions are rarely so boldly contoured as Salisbury 
Plain. The leader must combine some of the qualities of a 
field-marshal with the skill of a deer-stalker, and a bit of red- 
Indian sleuth thrown in. Luckily, such masters of the craft are 
not entirely lacking to us. . 
The thoughts revolving in the leader's mind during his 
brief survey follow these general lines: First, which is (a) the 
favourite and (b) the most favourable line of flight of those 
bustards when disturbed; secondly, where can guns best be 
placed athwart that line; thirdly, how can the guns reach these 
points unseen? A condition precedent to success is that the 
firing-line shall be drawn around the bustards fairly close up, yet 
without their knowledge. Now with wild-game in open country 
devoid of fences, hollows, or covert of any description that problem 
presents initial difficulties that may well appear insuperable. 
But they are rarely quite so. It is here that the fielderaft of the 
leader comes in. He has detected some slight fold that will 
shelter horsemen up to a given point, and beyond that, screen 
a crouching figure to within 300 yards of the unconscious 
bandada. Rarely do watercourses or valleys of sufficient depth 
lend a welcome aid; recourse must usually be had to the reverse 
slope of the hill whereon the bustards happen to be. Without 
a halt, the party ride round till out of sight. At the farthest 
safe advance, the guns dismount and proceed to spread themselves 
out—so far as possible in a semicircle—around the focal point.’ 
At 80 yards apart, each lies prone on earth, utilising such shelter 
1 The horses, if ground permits, may be utilised as ‘‘stops” to extreme right and left of 
the drive, otherwise they must be concealed in some convenient hollow in charge of a boy 
or two. 
