Wild Spain Part 17

At present the preparation and export of Spanish oil is almost monopolized by the port of Malaga.

HORSE-BREEDING AND LIVE STOCK.

Andalucia is the breeding-ground of the best horses of the Peninsula: many of the landowners are possessed of well-known "brands," as they are called, and the farmers are almost universally interested in horses to some extent. Great strides have been made of recent years in the improvement of the breeds through the importation of thorough-bred English sires, &c. This is, indeed, the one branch of rural industry in which a decided advance has been made. Since the introduction of racing into the country by Englishmen, about 1867--Jerez de la Frontera being the cradle of this, as of most other sports--the superiority of the present breed has been thoroughly established. Horses of a larger and better stamp than formerly are now seen bearing the branded device of the various provincial herds, it being still the custom to brand each foal with the particular sign of the stud to which it belongs.

For temper and enduring powers the old Spanish hack could never be improved upon; but in shape and make the race had sadly degenerated since the Spanish Gennet was the favourite and fashionable steed of the wealthy both in France and England. The heavy Flemish stallions introduced by Carlos Quinto--of which Velasquez' pictures give us the type--account for this falling-off from the earlier form of that high-bred Arab race which long ago supplied the wants of a nation of hors.e.m.e.n--the _Caballeros_, whose interests in life were coloured and directed by a devotion to knight-errantry unparalleled in other lands, and which still leaves its impress on the thought and habit of the _Hidalgos_ of to-day.

Now, however, the Andalucian horse bids fair to regain his ancient prestige; some of the more ambitious _haras_ boast their strings of pedigree-stock, and the stud-book of Spain is an established inst.i.tution, its register having been zealously kept till this year, by the sportsman-grandee, the late Duke of Fernan Nunez.

In contrast to these favoured breeds, and at the other extremity of the scale, we have the almost wild horses of the marismas, which shift for themselves throughout the year on the open wastes, and fly, like the deer, from the unaccustomed sight of man. The heats of summer, the cold and wet of winter, are faced in turn by this hardy race, which, in return for their freedom, provide their owners with a yearly contingent of st.u.r.dy offspring. These youngsters are only separated from the wild herds, "rounded up," and captured with great difficulty--after long and fast chases on the open plains. Perfect little demons of vice and fury they are, too, when caught, s.h.a.ggy and unkempt little beasts, coated with dried mud, biting at each other, quarrelling and screaming with savage rage--a _corral_ full of them newly-caught is indeed a singular sight. On many of the old mares of the marisma the hand of man has never placed a halter.

Of the fine description of Spanish merino sheep, so celebrated till the beginning of the eighteenth century, and so rigorously guarded and protected by Spanish Governments, there remains to-day hardly a trace.

France, Sweden, and Saxony found means about that period to obtain specimens of the Spanish breed, and with them departed the glory of the privileged race. There remain now in Spain but degenerate representatives. Years of apathy have left to her little but the coa.r.s.est breed of sheep both as to flesh and fleece. The race from which nearly all the best European varieties have originated is now, perhaps, the lowest on the list.

Mutton is comparatively scarce in the southern _mercados_, where for one sheep may be seen a dozen kids exposed for sale. The latter--strange parti-coloured little beasts--together with the ubiquitous pig and tough, stringy beef, provide most of the meat consumed in Spain, whose scant quant.i.ty and poor quality is eked out by vast supplies of small birds--Larks, Buntings, Quails, and the like--which are caught by means of a dark-lantern at night, as we have elsewhere described; whole festoons of small birds, with Partridge, wildfowl, and Little Bustards, adorn the market-stalls in the Spanish cities, flanked by Roe and Red Deer from the forests, and sometimes by a grizzly boar from the sierra.

The Spanish markets also afford a wondrous display of southern fruits and vegetables--whole mountains of golden melons and _sandias_, tons of tomatoes and pimientos (red pepper), p.r.i.c.kly pears, purple-ripe figs, loquats, apricots, grapes, and other fruit according to season; with lettuces, wild asparagus and a host of other vegetables. From every house in the town comes a servant to purchase the day's requirements of fish, flesh, fowl, or fruit--for everything is bought and consumed from day to day. There is no "cold mutton" in a Spanish menu! By eight o'clock, but little remains unsold, so an early start is needed to see the best of the show.

To return to the muttons: it should be added that Spain is now practically the only European country which still exports wool to the London market--upwards of a million and a half pounds' weight of Spanish wool annually reaching the Thames.

SUPPLEMENT.

Since writing the above, we have come across an interesting article on this subject in one of the best Spanish papers (the _Epoca_), from which we translate the following extracts, giving the native version of the present agricultural status:--"We must confess that the condition of Spanish agriculture is sufficiently deplorable, not only by reason of the apathy of its agriculturists, but also through the difficulties which the land presents to its perfect cultivation, to the use of manures, and the employment of modern machinery. It must be borne in mind that the land of the abrupt mountains of the Asturias, Galicia, and Cataluna condemns the country-people to the roughest and most laborious preparation. This is shared, though to a less extent, by the _labradores_ of the arid regions of Guipuzcoa, Biscay and Navarre; of the ricefields of Valencia, and on the sunburnt _vegas_ of Andalucia and Estremadura. Besides these physical difficulties there are other disadvantages of hardly less importance. A vast extent of terrain now lies waste and uncultivated through lack of capital and spa.r.s.eness of population; through the heavy tribute exacted by the state on agricultural produce, and the absence of means of communication to economize the transport of the harvest.

"Notwithstanding these immense difficulties, the Spanish agriculturist produces on fifty-six million _hectares_ of cultivable land an excess over the consumption of sixty-one million _hectolitres_[50] in cereals alone.

"The _superficies rustica_ of Spain may be cla.s.sed in the following form:--

"Without cultivation of any kind 428 per cent.{*} Cultivated 286 "

Pasture (_terreno de pasto_) 146 "

Woods, orchards, and gardens 140 "

----- 1000

{*} 458 is the figure stated, but as that would exceed the 100 we have reduced it accordingly.

"The average value of this superficies, according to annual production; and the capital which it represents, is as follows:--

Cla.s.s. Annual produce. Capital.

Cultivated 180,400,000 220,720,000 Pasture 31,960,000 153,280,000 Woods, gardens, &c. 31,568,000 49,280,000

"If we take into account that the 428 per cent.{*} of uncultivated land has also its 'prairie value,' it may be safely calculated that the landed property of Spain represents a sum of 560,000,000 (five hundred and sixty millions sterling).

"The number of inhabitants of Spain who devote themselves to agriculture is, according to the census returns, 4,821,875."

The same article gives a summary of the 22,291 mills and flour-factories of Spain, by which it appears the motive power used is as follows:--

Steam 374 (!) Wind 541 Horses 56 Hand 787 Water (various systems) 20,533 ------ Total 22,291

From a current number of a daily paper we cut the following advertis.e.m.e.nt, as showing the value set on _water_ in thirsty Spain:--"To be let, the grazing-grounds (_dehesa_) of Junco Real, in the district (_termino_) of Chichlana. Contains 1,075 _fanegas_ of brushwood and 237 of cultivation (_labor_), with SIX WELLS."

CHAPTER XX.

BIRD-LIFE OF THE SPANISH SPRING-TIME.

I.--THE PINALES, OR PINE REGION.

There are features of Spanish bird-life that give the subject a claim on the interest of British readers. Spain is the home of many of those species which we call "rare;" some of the rarest are here quite common.

Especially is this the case with the large birds of prey, with many aquatic species--such as the beautiful Southern Herons--and various other bird-groups.

Lying midway between Europe and Africa, Spain also affords opportunity for the observation of migration--nearly all our British summer-birds can be observed here in transit, during the spring months: some, indeed, have wintered in Spain, while the rest appear on pa.s.sage from Africa to the North.

More than this, Spain possesses a magnificent avi-fauna of her own, entirely unknown in England. Ornithologically, her southern provinces--at least in spring--might be included in what Mr. Sclater designates the "Cis-atlantean Subregion" (_Ibis_, 1891, p. 523), for their feathered denizens at that season approximate rather to the North African than to the European _ornis_.

Nor need these spring-notes be interesting _exclusively_ to the naturalist: for observation in the wilder and more remote regions involves a degree of hard work and of field-craft that brings this bird-hunting fairly within the category of _sport_. Cases in point, as those of the Flamingo and Crane--elsewhere described, and of the eagles and large raptores. Here, for example, is one day's record from our diary:--"Camp at Nava.s.so Redondo, _April 18th_.--Our captures to-day included 3 eagles, 4 kites, 2 large hawks, 5 ducks, an egret, 2 stone-plover, &c. First, Felipe woke me at day-break to say a pair of _aguiluchos_ had just coursed and killed a hare within 200 yards of the tent. Turned out in jersey and _alparagatas_, and stalked the spot indicated, when a small eagle flew from a tree away in the scrub to the left. I stood up, thinking the game was gone, when a second Booted Eagle (_Aquila pennata_) rose from the ground not forty yards ahead, and was secured. Later on, during the mid-day heat, we _thrice_ descried eagles perched on high trees--unusual luck. Both the first and second stalks failed, owing partly to bad marking in the first case, and to 'impossible' terrain in the second. The third, however, I killed--a very handsome tawny eagle. He was sitting on a pine in the centre of a circular swampy jungle: there was no considerable difficulty in creeping round the outside, nor till the final, direct approach commenced, when the ground became very bad--for the last 100 yards, strong briar-bound thicket and tussocks of spear-gra.s.s with deep bog-pools between, water up to one's waist. Had got to fifty yards when he saw me, and a lucky shot killed him as he opened his wings. Also stalked to-day two Harriers--a Marsh-Harrier (female) and a beautiful blue old Montagu: in the first case the stalk was supplemented by a short 'drive' by Felipe.

At dusk we observed a pair of Serpent-Eagles go to roost in a large single _alcornoque_: waited till dark, when we crept, barefoot, towards the tree, one on either side, and I killed the female eagle as she flew out into the moonlight. During the day we had found five nests of the Kite--shot four birds for identification, two from nest, the others after long _puestos_--and also brought in, besides the eagles, &c., two Gadwall, a Garganey drake, two White-eyed Pochard, an egret, seven terns (various), several small birds, and twenty-nine eggs--a memorable day!"

To stalk to within gunshot of an eagle, on the open plain, is almost as difficult an operation as any in our experience--that is unless, as sometimes happens, the conditions are unusually favourable.

During several springs we have made ornithological expeditions each of a fortnight to three weeks' duration, in various parts of Andalucia (itself nearly as large as England), La Mancha, and Southern Estremadura. Between the great rivers Guadalquivir and Guadiana lies a wild region, almost abandoned to wild animals, and rich in picturesque desolation. The district is an undulating plain, its chief physical const.i.tuent being sand, or light sandy soil, clad over wide areas with pine-forest, elsewhere with open heaths which extend from the Atlantic to the confines of Estremadura and the border-land between Spain and Portugal, or rather of the ancient kingdom of the Algarves. The southern portion is known as the _Cotos del Rey_ and _Donana_, the latter, extending some forty miles inland from the sea, the property of the n.o.ble house bearing one of the oldest European t.i.tles--that of Medina Sidonia. The Coto de Donana, as the name implies, is a preserve, and, owing to the circ.u.mstance of our having for many years been lessees of the sporting rights, this lovely wilderness has formed a favourite hunting-ground at all seasons. But we have also traversed some other of the wilder regions of the south--many quite as rich, zoologically--such, for example, as the wooded province of Cordova, the _vegas_ of the Sierra Nevada and the environs of Almaden; and we now believe that, for the naturalist, the richest field of all is in Southern Estremadura and the almost unexplored borders of Guadiana. That river, from Daimiel downwards, flows through wildernesses of cane-brake, abounding both in large and small game, and in spring-time with infinite variety of birds.

For our present purpose we have divided the Spanish plains into three sections:--the pine-forests, the open heaths, and the meres or lagoons; of these we will now take the _pinales_.

The first thing that strikes an Englishman in Spain is the number and variety of the birds of prey. At home we have practically exterminated these, but here they are ever in evidence, from ma.s.sive eagles and yet larger vultures down to the smallest falcons. Those bald-headed fellows, hunting low with heavy flight, or "drifting" alternately on motionless pinions, are Marsh-Harriers; the long-winged hawks, like giant swallows, are the Montagu's Harrier. Buzzards are of more soaring flight, resembling in form the eagles, but lacking their regal presence; while the Kites are recognized by the deeply forked tail. Ever since Rugby days and the Kestrel's nest in Caldecott's cla.s.sic spinney, the birds of prey have had a special attraction to the writer--to whom, _pace_ the later lights of ornithological science, a hawk still holds the chief place among birds.

Starting on a bright April morning to traverse the _pinales_ of La Marismilla, our first find was a nest of the Serpent-Eagle (_Circaetus gallicus_) built in the main fork of a stone-pine, a curiously twisted tree growing apart on a heathery knoll in a forest-glade. This, and all the nests of this eagle we have seen, was small, very thick in proportion to width, had a layer of dead leaves, and then a lining of twigs. This bird only lays one egg--large, rough, and white--which fact perhaps explains the relative smallness of their nests. Below are strewn many vertebrae of serpents; a female we shot had a snake four feet long in her beak, only a few inches hanging outside; another, killed at her nest in a mountain-forest of the sierra, had a rabbit; but snakes and large reptiles are their chief prey. Snakes abound in Spain, and some grow to great size, many reaching six feet in length, and we have killed lizards of nearly three.

The legs and feet of this eagle are pale bluish, and very rough--to hold their slippery prey. The eye is large, overhung, and very bright yellow; flight buoyant, but rather unsteady, and they show very white from below. Most reptiles hybernating, even in sunny Spain, the Serpent-Eagle is only a summer migrant--we have never observed it in the winter months. The date of arrival this year (1891) was March 8th. In 1888 we observed a pair as early as the 3rd.

Both eagles soared around so near that there was no difficulty in recognizing the species; indeed their heavy heads--almost owl-like--recurved wings and white under-sides, cannot be mistaken.[51]

Not requiring them as specimens, we continued our ride, and during the day found two nests of the Buzzard, each with three eggs; the only nests of this species found this spring--except one with young in June--the Buzzard being more numerous in winter, when almost every dead tree is occupied by one of these indolent hawks. All the Spanish-breeding Buzzards are of the normal dark brown type. The Goshawk (_Astur palumbarius_) we have also observed in these Andalucian forests both in spring and winter, but have not chanced to find it breeding here ourselves, though it is on record that it occasionally does so.

The next two nests discovered were both those of the Kite (_Milvus ictinus_), each on a lofty pine. There are in Spain two kinds of Kite, whose wild musical scream is characteristic of these lonely woodlands.

There is the _Milano real_--the Red Kite, resident in Spain, and distinguishable from the migrant Black Kite (_Milvus migrans_) by the broad white band on the under-wing, caused by the basal half of the primaries being white beneath (this band in _M. migrans_ being smoke-grey), and by the more deeply forked tail. The Black Kite is altogether a more dusky coloured species.

The eggs of the two species, and those of Buzzards and others, are indistinguishable; it is therefore necessary to shoot or trap the birds from the nest to make sure of identification. But the Red Kite breeds earlier (at the end of March, and early in April) and in more secluded spots than its ally, whose habits, moreover, are, in places, almost gregarious. We have seen a score of Black Kites' nests in a small patch of wood, not two acres--but eggs are not laid till quite the end of April or early in May.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate x.x.x.

KITES AND MARSH-HARRIERS.

Page 242.]

A singular, but well-known, habit of the Kite (the Red, not the Black species) is to decorate their abodes with a collection of gaudy rags and other fantastic rubbish: in one case I found the dead and dried remains of a White Owl hung up, in others the long quill-feathers of the Spoon-bill and other birds, a linen shirt-sleeve, old match-boxes, and similar sundries. But this curious custom was useful in saving many an unnecessary climb--no nest was worth going up to unless a rag or two fluttered in the breeze. The Kites, moreover, select the loftiest trees for their abodes, and owing to the habit of Spanish foresters to lop off all the lower branches of the pines when saplings, these trees grow up tall, straight, and slippery as fishing-rods. Fortunately for oological enterprise, the scant population of the _pinales_ are mostly _pinaleros_--pine-cone gatherers. These pine-cones are used for fuel and for making a confection something like _nougat_. The tree-climbing abilities of the _pinaleros_ are marvellous: in this way we obtained many eggs of Kite, Buzzard, Booted Eagle, and most of the forest-breeding species.