. Unexplored Spain. Hunting; Natural history. 96 Unexplored Spain from water; hence each man had to hide as best he could, prostrate behind rush-tuft or twelve-inch samphire. This morning, however, the greylags flew wide and scattered, in strange contrast with their customary regularity. We noticed the change, but knew not the cause. The geese did. The barometer during the night (unnoticed by us at 4 ) had gone down half an inch, and already, as we assembled for breakfast at ten o'clock, rain was beginning to fall—the first rain since the spring! The wind, which for weeks had remained &quo
. Unexplored Spain. Hunting; Natural history. 96 Unexplored Spain from water; hence each man had to hide as best he could, prostrate behind rush-tuft or twelve-inch samphire. This morning, however, the greylags flew wide and scattered, in strange contrast with their customary regularity. We noticed the change, but knew not the cause. The geese did. The barometer during the night (unnoticed by us at 4 ) had gone down half an inch, and already, as we assembled for breakfast at ten o'clock, rain was beginning to fall—the first rain since the spring! The wind, which for weeks had remained " nailed to the jq'orth—norte clavado," in Spanish phrase—flew to all airts, and a chanse was at hand. By eleven there burst what the Spanish. POCHARD {FuUgula/erina) well name a tormenta; lightning flashed from a darkened sky, while thunder. rolled overhead, and rain drove horizontal on a living hurricane. An hour later the heavens cleared, and the sun was shining as before. That short and sudden storm, how- ever, had marked an epoch. The whole conditions- of bird-life in the marisma had been revolutionised within a couple of hours. In other years, under such conditions as this morning had promised, we have records of sixty and eighty greylags brought to bag, and it was with such anticipation that we had set out to-day. The result totalled but a quarter of such numbers. Ducks came next in our programme, and the writer, being the last gun by lot, had several miles to ride to his remote post at El Hond6n. The scenes in bird-life through which we rode. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original Chapman, Abel, 1851-1929; Buck, Walter John. joint author. London, E. Arnold
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, booksubjecthunting, booksubjectnaturalhistory
