Valencia 537 
wigeon, teal, and shoveller, together with a few shelducks and 
many common and red-crested pochards. Flamingoes and spoon- 
bills frequent the shallows in small numbers. 
As individual instances; from a replaza that cost 900 pesetas 
(say £40), and which was the ninth in point of price that year, 
one gun fired 700 cartridges in a single morning. 
The best replaza—at least the most expensive (it cost 1500 
pesetas)—was tenanted last winter by friends from whose 
experiences, not too encouraging, we gather: At the first shoot 
(November 13) the post was occupied by a single gun, who, after 
firing 400 shots, was compelled to desist owing to injury to his 
shoulder. “TI believe,” he writes, “I might have fired 1500 
cartridges had I continued all day, but was obliged to leave early. 
The boatmen had then gathered ninety—sixty ducks, thirty coot— 
and expected to recover more.” 
On November 28 the post was occupied by three guns: “ No 
day for duck, a blazing sun so hot that the reflection from the 
water blistered our faces. The ducks mounted up high in air 
and mostly cleared early in the proceedings, though some were 
attracted by our 100 decoys. We killed ninety-six, mostly wigeon 
and pochard, a few mallard and teal, besides twenty snipe. The 
desideratum is a really rough day, but that at Valencia is past 
praying for.” 
The arrozales are run dry (and of course the shooting stopped) 
by the middle of January. The water, in fact, is only kept up so 
long solely for the sake of the shooting. So soon as its level has 
fallen a couple of inches the fowl all leave directly. 
