334 Unexplored Spain 
of large quantities), the conejete rarely receives more than an 
hour or two’s attention. 
Hares (Lepus mediterraneus), common all over Spain, are 
rather more numerous in the marisma than on the drier grounds. 
They have indeed developed semi-aquatic habits, in times of flood 
swimming freely from island to island and making arboreal 
“forms ” in the half-submerged samphire-bush. Should the whole 
become submerged, the hares betake themselves to the-main 
shore, and on such occasions, with two guns, we have shot a 
dozen or so on a drive. These small Spanish hares are marvel- 
lously fleet of foot, especially when an almost equally fleet-footed 
podenco is in full chase over ground as Hat and bare as a bowling- 
green. 
In these hares the females are larger and greyer in colour than 
the males. Their irides are yellow, with a small pupil, whereas 
in the male the eye is hazel and the pupil large. The fur of the 
latter is bright chestnut in hue, especially on hind-quarters and 
legs, which frequently show irregular splashes of white. The 
lower parts are purest white, and along the clean-cut line of 
demarcation the colour contrasts are the strongest. Long film- 
like hairs grow far beyond the ordinary fur on their bodies, and 
the tails are longer and carried higher than in our British species. 
Weleuts oF Ten Spanish Harzs, KILLED JANUARY 30, 1908 
Males 44 44 44 44 44 lbs, deadweight 
Females 4f 5 54 54 54 Ibs., deadweight 
WeIents or Spanish RaBeits (IN Coupizs) 
Ten couples 3 3 3 34 34 34 34 34 34 82 Ibs, clean 
These rabbits differ from the home-breed not only in their smaller 
size, but in the colder grey of their fur and large transparent ears. 
Hitherto shooting over great areas of rural Spain has been 
practised under conditions absolutely natural—almost pristine. 
The game on mountain, moor, or marsh is not only free to any 
hunter who possesses the skill to capture it, but it is left to 
fight unaided its struggle for existence against hosts of enemies, 
feathered, furred, and scaled, the like of which has no equivalent 
in our crowded isles; and which work terrible havoc, each in its 
own way, among the milder members of creation. The presence 
of so many fierce raptorials, however (though it ruin the “ bag”), 
