. Wild Spain ... records of sport with rifle, rod, and gun, natural history and exploration . s aboutdaybreak to the grassy shores, where, if unmolested, theyspend the day feeding, preening, and washing in the shallowwater. In these situations, we frequently fell in with themwhile fowling with the cabrcstos. Anseres son ! —geese WILDFOWLING IN THE WILDERNESS. 377 they are —was Vasquezs verdict, as he slowly shut up theglass after a long and particular survey of the distantforeshore. The words were spoken sadly, as though solilo-quizing, for the Grey Lag is altogether too wary andsupicious a bi
. Wild Spain ... records of sport with rifle, rod, and gun, natural history and exploration . s aboutdaybreak to the grassy shores, where, if unmolested, theyspend the day feeding, preening, and washing in the shallowwater. In these situations, we frequently fell in with themwhile fowling with the cabrcstos. Anseres son ! —geese WILDFOWLING IN THE WILDERNESS. 377 they are —was Vasquezs verdict, as he slowly shut up theglass after a long and particular survey of the distantforeshore. The words were spoken sadly, as though solilo-quizing, for the Grey Lag is altogether too wary andsupicious a bird to fall readily into the snare of thefowler. Earely indeed is it possible, by this stratagem,*to approach within the short range which alone is fatal—■forty yards is the maximum for these ironclads, and twenty-five much more desirable. Except when in very smallnumbers—twos and threes together—it is barely worthwhile to attempt a stalk ; our friends only undertook theoperation under protest, saying it was a comproniiso—athing calculated to compromise their aucipial ANSERFS SON! Ansercs son ! there, sure enough, on the utmost verge ofthe plain, sits a straggling line with detached groups ofbig, blue-grey forms, some slowly moving about, otherssquatted on the ground or resting in various attitudes ofrepose. Such big packs are inaccessible ; only once, thatwinter, did we seem to be really on the road to bulk of the geese—some seventy in number—appearedto be peacefully sleeping away the mid-day hours, some * That is, with two men behind the pony. We have since then,going single-handed, occasionally succeeded in oiitwittmg even theGrey Lag. 378 WILD SPAIK. sitting on the grass, others standing on one leg with headssnugly tucked away under their back feathers. We hadalready reached the critical point, and the ponies well knownow the importance of caution—step by step, with a haltat every fourth or fifth to crop a mouthful of grass, theyslowl
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