Wild Spain Part 33

These are rare and exceptional stragglers to Southern Spain. In February, 1891 (a severe winter further north), we found four wild swans--two fully adult, one of them a very large bird--frequenting the Lucios de la Madre, in the marismas of Guadalquivir. They were very wild, and even when alone and separate from other fowl, refused to allow the approach of our gunning-punt. Eventually we fired at them at long range (No. 1 shot), but, though one was badly struck, we failed to secure it: have little doubt, from their note and appearance, they were hoopers.

AUGUST IN THE MARSHES.

Since writing the above, we have enjoyed a new experience--a duck-shooting campaign in August. During two days, some 250 ducks were bagged, of which half were mallards (the drakes already distinguishable on wing), and of the rest the greater proportion were marbled ducks, the following species being also included:--gadwall, garganey, ferruginous and white-faced ducks, ruddy sheld-duck, three or four teal, and two pintails.

The latter were probably wounded birds lingering since the preceding winter; which may also, perhaps, explain the presence of three greylag geese which were seen but not secured. Several common snipe were also shot--these facts afford "food for reflection!"

During the shooting, the air was alive with birds; besides ducks, there were herons of all sorts--old and young--egrets, white spoonbills, night-herons--many young ones, brown and speckled like bitterns--together with crested and eared grebes, dabchicks, terns, coots and pratincoles in thousands; while above all, sailed files of glossy ibis with curious barking croaks, several cormorants, and a string of cranes.

Among miscellaneous birds shot were most of the above, with little bitterns, various rails and one purple waterhen, little gulls, whimbrels (?) and bar-tailed G.o.dwit.

It is worth adding that a dead bird, left floating, was completely devoured in less than five minutes by water-beetles (_Dyticus_), which hollowed out the body and left nothing, but empty skin and feathers! One felt that, had one the bad luck to get bogged, these creatures were capable of making away with a man well under half an hour.

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CHAPTER x.x.xVIII.

DEER-STALKING AND "STILL-HUNTING"

ON THE SOUTHERN PLAINS.

Though left to the last, the system of "_rastreando_," as it is called in Spanish--stalking or "still-hunting," as we have rendered it in English (though neither expression is perhaps a precise equivalent), affords some of the prettiest sport to be obtained with the rifle in the Peninsula. As an example of this sport, we have taken our latest and not least successful deer-stalking expedition, which took place in March, 1892--exactly twenty years after the campaign recorded in the _first_ chapter (p. 23) of our book.

There only remained a few days before the season for deer-shooting would close. For more than a week we had been ready awaiting a change in the weather; but heavy rains day by day delayed a start. Never had there been known so wet a winter. From the Giralda tower at Seville, the whole country appeared a sea, and the great river, in the early days of March, was causing serious anxieties to the Sevillanos, having reached a higher level than local records had hitherto known. Already its angry waters dashed in foam over the key-stones of Triana bridge; the transpontine suburb was submerged to the second floors; from its flat roofs starving men and women cried for bread as boats pa.s.sed by, navigating, Venetian-fashion, the flooded streets. The city itself was an island--only preserved from inundation by incessant labour at the embankments, over whose topmost stones the menacing waves already lapped, when a lull in the storm saved Seville. A breach in that embankment or a further rise, and the stately and historic city had been swept away--as Consuegra and many a small town or village was swept away in Southern Spain daring the terrible floods of 'ninety-two.

Such climatic conditions would not be wholly unfavourable for deer-stalking--reducing the area over which the game is scattered--provided there should now be some cessation of the down-pour.

A lull had at length occurred, and the writer set out from Seville to spend the few remaining days of the season in a remote region of those brush-clad prairies which cover so vast an area in Southern Spain. My only companions were two Spanish _cazadores_, brothers, men of keen eye and of tried skill in woodcraft. The object was to endeavour by _rastreando_, or still-hunting, to secure a few of the old and wary stags which roamed over these barren down-lands; but which were far too cunning to lose their lives in the customary Spanish _batidas_, or drives. Was it possible, single-handed, and on such comparatively open ground, to out-manuvre these old forest-monarchs, which, on a former visit, we had seen make good their escape from six or eight rifles? This question we decided to solve, and to devote the remaining days to "still-hunting," abandoning every other form of attack.

The rains had left much of these rolling downs too wet for shelter, many of the thickets and patches of "scroggy" wood being breast-deep in water. The _picaros tunantes_, _i.e._, cunning old rogues, as Manuel termed our friends the big stags, were therefore reduced for dry-lying to the higher ridges and plateaux of the plains; and these, it chanced, lay at the greatest distance--a long two-days' ride.

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The sun was low ere our horses' hoofs resounded on dry land, instead of the constant splash, splosh through flooded hollows or standing pools of rain-water. Here, too, the swelling prairie afforded rather more covert.

We had now reached favourable ground, and from each rising point we examined the surrounding country with minute scrutiny, scanning each nook and corner with the binoculars. After a while we made out the head of a stag, apparently feeding beyond a belt of _abolagas_ and jungle-gra.s.s. A direct stalk--which otherwise seemed fairly feasible--would, under existing conditions, have necessitated _swimming_ a considerable part of the distance, and the lateness of the hour forbade our making a long detour, which also seemed to offer a chance of success. We therefore adopted a third course, and after quickly covering some two miles, mostly through p.r.i.c.kly spear-gra.s.s or water, reached a ridge which my companion reckoned would command the course of the deer as he led forward. On peering through the bushes on the crest, the stag was nowhere to be seen--we had overshot the point, and he was now far to the right. Before us stretched a long tongue of marshy water, choked with gra.s.ses, and aquatic herbage floating on its surface. With a sardonic grin, M. a.s.sured me that that gra.s.s would prove the death of our stag. "He will feed along that pool," he whispered, "nibbling the water-plants and sprouting gra.s.s; but first the daylight must decline."

Ten minutes later, the antlers showed, stealing from some distant covert; then the beast stepped into the open, advancing towards the water. But suspicion torments him--between each petulant s.n.a.t.c.h at the herbage, he stops and listens, raises his antlered head to gaze back towards the point whence we had first viewed him: he little thinks the enemy he fears behind is now close in his front. Presently suspicion seems allayed: he advances with stealthy strides along the gra.s.sy edge, and already approaches the limits of very long range. The express was ready c.o.c.ked when the stag recommenced sniffing and gazing, now he turns and walks away: the wind is shifty, and to get it full in his nostrils he bears from us. Clearly he will not now pa.s.s our point near enough for a shot, so back to lower ground we "slither," and run forward at best speed to cut him out at another point. Still he is out of shot--800 yards off--and another race to the front is necessary, a lung-trying spin of a quarter-mile. Now, we must perforce rest, panting, for a few moments, ere we again crawl up the ascent and "speer" over the ridge.

The stag is nowhere to be seen--yes, there he is! he has both heard and seen us now, and is bounding at top-speed over our very ridge, not seventy yards in advance. Ere the rifle can be levelled and a ball dispatched, the stag has dipped the crest: but the second barrel, after a flying run to the ridge, affords more deliberate aim at about 120 yards. "He has it," quietly remarks my companion, and as the galloping stag displays his extended flank, the blood-patch on his side is clearly marked, but _too far back_. Poor beast! though fatally struck, there is no chance to recover him to-night, for already the sun dips behind the distant _pinales_--it is too late to think of following him, and sadly we return to our horses. Ten miles to ride, and the evening spent discussing "muckle harts" and their haunts on the neighbouring wilds.

All night wind and rain: at daybreak the clouds indicated better things, but after a few fitful gleams of sunlight, the deluge set in once more.

This and the next day were very bad:--wasted. It was only possible to pa.s.s the time shooting a few rabbits for the use of the _rancho_--the partridges were all paired long ago; but a lucky shot at a nervous band of sand-grouse secured four, and in some rush-clad backwaters we picked up a few snipe and two or three couples of wild-duck.

Next morning, at dawn, we set out to look for deer, the pannier-ponies following at a distance, with instructions never to come up unless shots had been fired. Facing the gale, we struck out across far-extending heaths, where the scrub, as a rule, is of convenient height for shooting over, but where, in the hollows or dells, are found deep thickets, or _manchas_. These jungle-patches cover from one or two up to thirty acres in extent: here the growth of th.o.r.n.y shrub and pampas-gra.s.s is much higher, thicker, and more densely entwined, affording secure "lying" for deer and other animals.

No rain had fallen since the early hours of the morning: hence the light, sodden soil exhibited the traces of every beast which had traversed it to perfection. It was some time before we found tracks large enough to betoken one of our friends, the _tunantes_. The brothers had followed two or three _rastros_ for short distances, but were not satisfied with their importance. Small stags, hinds, lynx, fox and boar had wandered hither and thither, and were now doubtless sleeping away the hours of daylight in some of the neighbouring thickets. Hours pa.s.sed, but no _rastro gordo_ (heavy track) was discovered, though every sign and impress on the light sandy soil was read as a book by the brothers, who quartered the ground to right and left like a brace of first-rate setters. M. was the first to find: suddenly he stopped and beckoned:--yes, those prints are undoubtedly of far larger hoofs than any we have yet seen: nor are they the spoor of one _tunante_, but of two. Here, says M., look where the two big beasts have stopped together to nibble the shoots of this _escobon_ (genista)--there they have stripped a _romero_ (rosemary) of its mauve-coloured blossoms--and here, along this hollow, they have taken their way at daybreak, direct towards some thicket-sanctuary. Now, we will not leave them, adds the wild man, till you have had a _carambola a boca de jarro!_ "a right-and-left at half-range." For three or four miles, we follow the line, the men hardly deigning to look on the ground, but making, as by instinct, for points at which we invariably picked up the trail. At first it was all plain sailing; but presently we came to places where to our eyes no trace of spoor existed--to swamps where the uninitiated would detect no sign in bruised water-flower or bent sedge-shoot; we pa.s.sed beneath pine-coppices where the thick-lying needles told _him_ no tale of nimble feet that had pressed them hours before. At such spots a check occasionally occurred, when the brothers, muttering maledictions on old stags in general, and still more scandalous reflections on the maternal ancestry of these two in particular, opened out till one or the other caught the thread. The discovery was signalled by holding up a hand, and on we file, all three pressing quickly forward along the fatal trail. A pretty sight to watch these men cast like sleuth-hounds, when the trace was apparently lost--though lost it never was.

Now, after four miles or more, the trail gave certain indications that were interpreted to mean a desire on the part of the deer to seek shelter for the day--not a change in their course but its import was calculated by the hunters. As the spoor approached each small jungle, the writer went forward in advance, leaving the men to follow the _rastro_. Several thickets had been tried in this way, but each time the beasts had pa.s.sed through and gone on. Now there stretched away before us a long narrow belt of covert, and approaching this the indications of the spoor showed that the two deer, as the men put it, _van de recojida_, _i.e._, had entered the jungle wearily, and would now be couched within it. The covert was too long to risk putting the gun at the end, as the game might break on either side; so we decided to walk through it in line. Unluckily the growth was dense and high--in most places we could not see two yards in front, a tantalizing situation when one knew that each step might now bring one to the promised right-and-left! We had barely progressed 200 yards when the startled deer arose.[78] I heard the rush and the crash of the undergrowth, but could see nothing; my ear told me they had gone to the right, and pushing through the jungle in that direction, a slight clearing in the long gra.s.s showed a glimpse of the two heads appearing now and again above the scrub as the deer bounded away. I fired both barrels of the express, directing one at each animal. After the shots nothing could be seen; but one hart was down, a beast of twelve points. The other barrel appeared to have been a miss--the larger _tunante_ of the two had escaped, _Caramba!_ Not for long did such doubts torment us, for, on cutting off the spoor outside the covert, the tell-tale blood was seen on the cistus-twigs and on the sandy soil. We followed the wounded beast for four hours through possible and even impossible places. His pace never slackened--he seemed to be bound for Portugal. I suggested slipping a couple of dogs; but the idea was overruled. "The _tunante_ is struck in the haunch," said they, "and before dogs, would run for hours: he would reach the big _pinales_, six leagues away. Our chance consists in his keeping the more open ground and smaller thickets. Before sundown we will overtake him; but _then_, you must put your bullet in a better place." These bloodhounds never doubted--on we went, patiently following the now easier trail, and before sundown we _did_ overtake him. Then, as he rushed from a clump of big bulrushes in a shallow lagoon, where the fevered beast had lain down in the water, the express bullet lodged in _el mismissimo corazon_=in his very heart: and the panniers were balanced with two of the heaviest old stags that ever roamed on Andalucian plain.

The next day, a downpour of rain just at the critical moment--when game and other wild beasts are returning to their lairs--obliterated every _rastro_, and a fresh stratagem had to be employed. This was to find and rouse the stag, and then to follow the trail--necessarily a longer and more delicate operation than that last described, since the suspicions of the animal are thoroughly aroused; he is alarmed, and traverses great distances ere again he goes to cover. He is, moreover, apt to go away very wild on the second approach. The half-inundated condition of the country, however, was in our favour; and late in the afternoon, having traced a stag for many weary leagues, I had the satisfaction of pulling down a beast of "royal" rank by a very long shot.

The next day--and the last of the season--might have been one of those contributory to the Noachian deluge. Again, despite wind and weather, a _venado_ of eleven points rewarded our efforts. This stag gave us much trouble: put up early in the morning, it was night ere he was secured.

My first shot, a long one, struck him heavily, but he ran for hours before the dogs. We took to our horses in pursuit, but thrice he foiled us--both scent and spoor being obliterated by the rain. Twice, by wide "casts" of a mile or more in circuit, we recovered the lost thread, but the third time not a trace could we discover, and had almost given him up for lost, when he jumped up, a long way ahead, before the dogs. At top-speed we ran him to the deep waters of Martinazo, and when at last we overhauled him, he was making his last gallant fight with the two hounds, which held him at bay, breast-deep, in the moonlight.

During the long homeward ride on the morrow, we came on the big round "pugs" of a lynx, and after following them a couple of miles to his lair, he, too--a big and handsome male--was added to the bag by a single shot from the express. By nightfall we again reached the outposts of civilization, well content with the results of the campaign--four good stags and a lynx--and the wind-up of the sporting season of 1891-92.

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APPENDIX.

PART I.

THE LARGE GAME OF SPAIN AND PORTUGAL,

WITH NOTES ON OTHER SPANISH MAMMALIA.

The large game, or _caza mayor_, of Spain comprises nine or ten animals, several of which have been dealt with specifically in separate chapters.

We now describe more particularly those not mentioned elsewhere, and complete a general review of other Spanish _mammalia_ by a few supplementary remarks.

The beasts of chase in the Peninsula are the red, roe, and fallow deer; the Spanish ibex and chamois; wild boars, and bears of two varieties, the wolf and Spanish lynx.

RED DEER (_Cervus elaphus_).

Spanish: _Ciervo_, _Venado_.

Scattered locally throughout the Peninsula, the Spanish red deer present two distinct types, both differing from the Scotch animal in the absence of the neck-ruff, or mane. The forest-deer of the wooded plains, or _cotos_, carry small and rather narrow heads, measuring from 24 to 28 inches in length of horn, and some 18 to 24 in beam.

The mountain-deer, on the other hand, often exhibit a magnificent horn-development. We have seen heads from the Sierra Morena, and from the Montes de Toledo, whose ma.s.sive antlers rival those of the wapiti, reaching 36 and even 40 inches and upwards in length, with a breadth of three feet.

The rutting season of the red deer commences in the Coto Donana at the end of August (the last quarter of the August moon), and continues till the full moon in September. We have seen fawns following their mothers as early as January, but May is the month when they are usually dropped.

The antlers fall in April--few stags are seen with them in May. During the hornless period of spring and summer, the stags seek shelter in the densest thickets with damp lying: they also "lie out," like hares, in open country, and it is surprising how they conceal themselves--a big hart will lie completely hidden among rushes not two feet high. The flies at this season are a terrible torture to them, attacking the sprouting horns and tender surroundings.

Deer-shooting commences in November, and ends in February or early in March; and it is only necessary to add that all lands in which deer are found, both on mountain and plain, are preserved.

MEASUREMENT OF RED DEER HEADS.

_Forest-Deer._