THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
ing them.” He adds that “one afternoon when returning from snipe 
shooting, we fell in with an enlrada of quail in a belt of dry rush and sedges 
and bagged twenty-seven and a half couple in less than an hour, when 
daylight and cartridges ran short.” 
On another page, referring to the delta of the Guadalquivir, and especi- 
ally those parts known as the Isla Mayor, and Isla Menor, so-called 
“ islands ” formed by the triple channel of that great river, he observes : 
“ These islands comprise vast areas of level pasturage, in winter bare 
of herbage, almost dry mud, but by April knee deep in richest grass and 
vegetation resonant with the whit4u-whit of unnumbered quail.” 
The dry plateaux on the north of the Laguna de Janda — an inland sea 
of yellow muddy water surrounded by sedge and cane brake, a well-known 
haunt of wildfowl in winter — are a notable resort of little bustard, and 
large bags of quail and golden plover are there at times secured. But 
this is well-known ground, and has been described by others. 
The Duke of Frias writes,* “ Quail cross from Morocco in April for 
breeding quarters, and quail shooting opens in most provinces on August 1 , 
but in Burgos, Soria, and Valladolid not until August 10. The birds are 
shot over dogs in the stubble and pastures, and great bags are sometimes 
made. I recollect a party of five guns getting in one day, near Siguenza, 
no less than 490 brace. Burgos, Soria, Segovia and Old Castilla are un- 
doubtedly the finest localities for quail in Spain. It is a curious fact, and 
one perhaps worth recording, that a good quail season in Spain depends 
largely on the energy with which the Governor of the Province of Cadiz 
prevents the netting of the weary birds on their first arrival on the coast. 
Properly protected for a day or two until they recover, the quail soon 
spread over the country. 
PORTUGAL.-— The Rev. A. C. Smith, in his “ Spring Tour in Por- 
tugal,” tells us that quail in that country are excessively abundant, and 
that the markets are always glutted with them. This is to be expected 
where every man’s hand is against them, and where nets as well as guns 
are employed for their destruction. There are no proper game laws in 
Portugal, the Administrative Corporations being merely empowered by 
the Civil Code (art. 334) to regulate the seasons for shooting; the result 
being that the close season varies in different provinces, and even in 
different districts of the same province. 
*Sj)ort in Europe (1901), p. 326. 
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