A Spanish System of Fowling 373 
behind one cabresto-pony, that is, an amateur as well as the 
professional, is a distinct handicap. We have done it ourselves, 
and accepted the handicap merely to see the system in operation ; 
yet by using more powerful weapons have probably killed as 
many fowl at one shot as even the fabled totals of our friends. 
Obviously no comparison can be, or is, suggested as between 
two totally different performances. It has been solely for the 
purpose of learning the system, and also of enjoying unequalled 
views of wildfowl close at hand, that we have occasionally put 
ina day with the cabresto-ponies, aud here annex a few records 
of shots made by this means, taken at random from our diaries. 
January 1, 1898.—Fired three broadsides with two guns, a double 
8- and a single 4-bore; in the second case the fowl had just been badly 
scared by a kite. Results :— 
(1) 59 wigeon, 3 teal 62 
@30 , 28 33 
(3) 60 Te ag 4 pintail, 4 shoveler 69 
Total 164 
January 31, 1905.—In three shots at wigeon, the first being half 
spoilt by a big black-backed gull, the authors (two guns) gathered :— 
274+ 51+48=126 wigeon. 
December 29, 1893.—Santolalla (2 guns), 78 teal, besides some coots, 
ata single shot. 
January 1894.—Laguna Dulce; three cabrestos with Spanish fowlers, 
and two amateurs with big breech-loaders (a broadside of 5 barrels) :— 
198 teal (including about a dozen wigeon). 
A shot made in January 1894 seems worth recording merely 
in respect of the numbers killed by only some seven ounces of 
lead. An islet actually carpeted with teal was our target, and 
two 12-bores, aided by an ancient Spanish muzzle-loader (about 
10-bore), realised fifty head, to wit, forty-nine teal and one 
mallard-drake. 
Geese will rarely admit of approach to the close quarters 
necessary for effective work; yet just on those rare exceptional 
occasions we have secured (using heavy shoulder-guns) from six to 
a dozen greylags in a day, once or twice more than this—tfive at 
a shot being the maximum. 
