Unexplored Spain Part 11

By night ducks feed in the s...o...b.. shallows and oozes, but concealed by the samphire-growth which flourishes in such places. Hence the use of the stancheon-gun is not here available as in the case of bare, plant-free, tidal flats at home and elsewhere.

In the dusk the ducks have arrived at these feeding-grounds in quite small trips or bunches. But as the stars pale towards the dawn, they depart in larger detachments, often numbering hundreds in a pack. Still, such are their enormous numbers that, even so, their s.h.i.+fting armies form an almost continuous stream in the direction whither they take their course. But where is that? That is the problem on the solution of which the fowler's success depends. We will presume that you have so solved it. In that case, you will have witnessed, between an hour before sun-up and half-an-hour thereafter, as marvellous a procession as the scheme of bird-life can afford.

Let us follow the fowl throughout that matutinal flight. Away through leagues of empty s.p.a.ce they hold their course, now high in air where vistas of brown samphire loom like land and might conceal a lurking foe, anon lowering their flight where sporadic sheets or lanes of open water break the tawny monotony. Beyond all this, stretching away in open waters like an inland sea, lies a big _lucio_. That is their goal. One by one, or in dozens and scores, the infinite detachments re-unite to splash down upon that gla.s.sy surface. Within brief minutes the whole expanse is darkened as with a carpet.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE STANCHEON-GUN IN THE MARISMA--DAWN.]

Upon this _lucio_ the a.s.sembled ducks command a view for miles around.

Hardly could a water-rat approach unseen. If the fowl persisted in pa.s.sing the entire day thereon, no human power would avail to molest them--they could bid defiance to fowlers of every race and breed. Two circ.u.mstances, however, favour their human foes. The first is the perpetual disturbance created among those floating hosts by birds-of-prey. These--chiefly marsh-harriers, but including also the great black-backed gulls--execute perpetual "feints" at the swimming ducks, sections of which (often thousands strong) are compelled to rise on wing by the menacing danger. The dominant idea actuating the raptores (since they are unable to attack the main bodies) is to ascertain if one or more wounded ducks remain afloat after their sound companions have cleared--the cripples, of course, affording an easy prey. The disturbed fowl will not fly far, perhaps half-a-mile, unless indeed they happen during that flight to catch sight of an attractive fleet of "decoys"

moored in some quiet creek a mile or so away.

The second favouring circ.u.mstance arises from a difference in habit between ducks in Spain and their relatives (even con-specific) inhabiting British waters. For whereas the latter, as a rule, will remain quiescent in their selected resting-places the livelong day, in Spain, on the contrary, by about 11 A.M., the force of hunger begins visibly to operate--not in all, but in sections, which, rising in detachments, separate themselves from the ma.s.ses and commence exploratory cruises among the smaller and shallower _lucios_ where food may be found.[20] This intermittent flight slackens off for an hour or so at midday, is renewed in the afternoon, and stops dead one hour before sun-down.

To exploit the advantage offered by these habits it is necessary to ascertain to which of the innumerable minor _lucios_ these "hunger-marchers" are resorting. Observation will have decided that point, and our expert gunner now (at 11 A.M.) be concealed with scrupulous care, and his fleet of, say, fifty decoys set out in lifelike and (or) attractive att.i.tudes, exactly in the centre of the particular lagoon, whither, of recent days, the ducks have been observed to resort in greatest abundance from noon onwards.

The gunner lies expectant on the cut rushes which strew the bottom-boards of his _cajon_--a box-shaped punt some 7 feet long by 2-1/2 broad, which is concealed by being thrust bodily in the midst of the biggest samphire bush available. The craft nevertheless is still afloat and, though flat-bottomed, is yet terribly crank, and any sudden movement to port or starboard threatens to capsize the entire outfit.

To allay the tense suspicion of flighting wildfowl, several of the adjacent bushes for fifty yards around have been heightened by the addition of a cut bough or two--the idea being to induce a theory among pa.s.sing ducks merely that this particular spot seems peculiarly favourable to samphire-growth--that and nothing more.

In setting up decoys, while many are posed in lifelike att.i.tudes, it is advisable to hang a few (especially white-plumaged species, such as pintail, shoveler, and wigeon-drakes) in almost vertical positions, in order to induce a belief among hungry incomers that these birds are "turning-up" to feast on abundant subaquatic plants beneath.

This intermittent flight is naturally irregular, hunger affecting greater or less numbers on different days; but when it comes off in force affords the cream of wildfowling from before noon till the sun droops in the west. During the last hour before he dips not a wing moves.

Duck-shooting thus resolves itself into two main systems: (1) intercepting the fowl on flight at dawn, and later (2) awaiting their incoming at expected points.

A good shoot may sometimes be engineered by cutting a broad "ride"

through the samphire along some flight-line, thereby forming an open channel between two _lucios_. Ducks which have hitherto flown sky-high in order to cross the danger-zone will now pa.s.s quite low along the new waterway, and even prefer it to crossing the cover at hazard, however high.

A typical day's fowling in mid-marisma may be described. The night has been spent in a reed-built hut charmingly situate on a mud-islet half-an-acre in extent, and commanding unequalled views of flooded and featureless marisma. At 4 A.M. we turn out and by the dim light of a lantern embark in a _cajon_ (punt), serenaded by the croaks and gabbling of flamingoes somewhere out in the dark waters. My wild companion, Batata, kneeling in the bows and grasping a punt-pole in either hand, bends to his work, and away we glide--into the unknown.

A weird feeling it is squatting thus at water-level and watching the wavelets dance by or dash over our two-inch free-board. We make but three miles an hour, yet seem to fly past half-seen water-plants. A myriad stars are reflected on the still surface ahead, and it is by a single great _Lucero_ (planet) that our pilot is now steering his course.

Batata presently remarks that we have "arrived." One takes his word for this. Still that verb does conditionally imply some place or spot of arrival. Here there was none--none, at least, that could be differentiated from any other point or spot in many circ.u.mambient leagues. But this was not an hour for philological disquisition, so we mentally decide that we have reached "nowhere." A few hours later when daylight discovers our environment, that negation appears sufficiently proved. There are visible certain objects on the distant horizon.

One--that behind us--proves to be the roof of the _choza_ wherein we had spent the night--"hull-down" to the eastward. The others a lengthened scrutiny with prism-binoculars shows to be a trio of wild camels feeding knee-deep in water. Now where you see such signs you may conclude you are nowhere.

We skip a few hours, since we have no intention of inflicting on the reader the details of a morning's flight-shooting. Suffice that at 9 A.M. B. reappears poling up in his punt, the spoils are collected (forty-nine in all, mostly wigeon and teal, with a few pintail and shoveler and one couple of gadwall), and the plan for the day discussed.

To remain where we were (as this _lucio_ had yesterday attracted a fairly continuous flight of ducks) had been our original idea. But a s.h.i.+ft of the wind had rendered a second _lucio_, distant two miles, a more favourable resort for to-day, and thither accordingly we set out.

Here a new _puesto_ is promptly prepared and the forty-nine decoys deftly set out, each supported by a supple wand stuck in the mud below.

Hardly had these preparations been completed, than the intermittent (or secondary) flight had commenced, file after file of ducks heading up from distant s.p.a.ce, wheeling over or das.h.i.+ng past the seductive decoys.

At recurring moments during the next three or four hours (with blank intervals between) I enjoyed to the full this most delightful form of wildfowling, so totally different in practice to all others.

Such is the speed of flighting fowl, such their keenness of vision and instant perception of danger, that but a momentary point of time--say the eighth of a second--is available fully to exploit each chance.

Should the gunner rise too quick, the ducks are beyond the most effective range; yet within a s.p.a.ce not to be measured by figures or words, they will have detected the fraud, and in a flash have scattered, shooting vertically upwards like a bunch of sky-rockets.

Two features in the life-history of the duck-kind become apparent. The first points to the probability that adults pair for life, and that the mated couples keep together all winter even when forming component units in a crowd. For when an adult female is shot from the midst of a pack, the male will almost invariably accompany her in her fall to the very surface of the water, and will afterwards circle around, piping disconsolately, and even return again and again in search of his lost partner. This applies chiefly to wigeon, but we have frequently observed the same trait in pintail and occasionally in other species. It is only the drakes that display this constancy; a bereaved female continues her flight unheeding.

The feature is most conspicuous when awaiting ducks at their feeding-grounds (_comederos_), but it also occurs when shooting on their flight-lines (_correderos_) between distant points.

The second singular habit is the custom, particularly among wigeon, to form what are termed in Spanish _maganonas_--little groups of four to a dozen birds consisting of a single female with a bevy of males in attendance, flying aimlessly hither and thither in a compact ma.s.s, the drakes constantly calling and the one female twisting and turning in all directions as though to avoid their attentions. The _maganonas_ appear blind to all sense of danger, and will pa.s.s within easy range even though a gunner be fully exposed. Not only this, but a first shot may easily account for half-a-dozen, and should the hen be among the fallen, the survivors will come round again and again in search of her. We have known whole _maganonas_ to be secured within a few minutes.

Other species also form _maganonas_, but more rarely and never in so conspicuous a manner as the wigeon. The habit certainly springs from what we have elsewhere termed a "pseudo-erotic" instinct (see _Bird-life of the Borders_, 2nd ed., pp. 208, 234-5), and is probably the first pairing of birds which have just then reached full maturity.

From mid-February to the end of March ducks are constantly departing northwards whenever conditions favour, to wit, a south-west wind in the afternoon, which wind is a feature of the season. Their vacant places are at once filled by an equally constant succession of arrivals from the south (Africa), easily recognised by rusty stains on their lower plumage (denoting ferruginous water) which they lose here within a few days.

Ducks at this season can find food everywhere in the _manzanilla_, or camomile, which now grows up from the bottom and in places covers the shallows with its white, b.u.t.tercup-like flowers. Having food everywhere there is less necessity to fly in search of it. It is, however, a curious feature of the season that, after the morning-flight (which is shorter than in mid-winter), ducks practically suspend all movement from, say, 8 A.M. till the daily sea-breeze (_Viento de la mar_) springs up about 1 P.M. During these five hours not a wing moves, but no sooner has the sea-breeze set in than constant streams of ducks fly in successive detachments from the large open _lucios_ to the shallower feeding-grounds. Thus we have known a late February "bag," which at 2 P.M. had numbered but a miserable half-score, mount up before dusk to little short of a hundred.

Wigeon arrive from the end of September onwards, the great influx occurring during the first fortnight of November. They commence leaving from mid-February, and by the end of March all (save a few belated stragglers) are gone.

The same remarks apply equally to pintail, shoveler, and teal, though, as before remarked, pintail often appear exceptionally early--in September,--and are again extremely conspicuous (after being scarce all winter) on their return journey--_de vuelta paso_, as it is called--in February.

Gadwall, preferring deep waters, are not numerous in the shallow marisma. A big bag therein, nevertheless, will always include a few couples of this species.

Shoveler are so numerous that we have known over eighty bagged by one gun in a day.

Garganey chiefly occur in early autumn and again _de vuelta paso_ in March. They winter in Africa.

Marbled duck breed here, and in September large bags may be made; but in mid-winter (when they have retired to Africa) it is rare to secure more than half-a-dozen or so in a day. They are very bad eating.

Shelduck only occur in dry seasons. They fall easy victims to any sort of "decoy" provided it is _white_. A local fowler told us he had killed many by subst.i.tuting (in default of natural decoys) the dry bones and skulls of cattle! Ruddy shelduck do not frequent the marisma, preferring the sweeter waters and shallows adjoining Donana.

Diving-ducks avoid the marisma except only in the wettest winters.

An hour before sun-down, as above stated, all bird-movement ceases. For a brief s.p.a.ce absolute tranquillity reigns over the illimitable marisma.

The dusky ma.s.ses that cover the _lucios_ seem lulled to sleep and silence. But the interlude is very temporary. Hardly has night thrown her mantle across the wastes, than all that tremendous, eager, vital energy is reawakened to fresh activities. A striking and a memorable experience will be gained by awaiting that exact hour at some favourite feeding-ground. Within a few minutes, as darkness deepens, the ambient air fairly hisses and surges with the pulsation of thousand strong pinions hurtling close by one's ear, and with the splash of heavy bodies flung down by fifties and hundreds in the shallows almost within arm's-length--the nearest approximation that occurs to us is a bombardment of pompoms. Yet, for all that, night-flighting in the marisma (having regard to the quant.i.ties concerned) produces but insignificant results. The ducks come in so low and so direct--no preliminary circling overhead--and at such velocity that this flight-shooting may be likened to an attempt to hit cannon-b.a.l.l.s in the dark. Our expert shots score, say, eight or ten, but what is that? The nocturnal disturbance, moreover, may be (and usually is) prejudicial to the next day's operations, and it is clearly not worth the risk, for half-a-dozen shots in the twilight, to discount a hundred at dawn.

The fewer shots ducks hear, the better. Never disturb them unless you have every reasonable prospect of exacting a proportionate toll.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

CHAPTER X

WILD-GEESE IN SPAIN

THEIR SPECIES, HAUNTS, AND HABITS

To Spain, as to other lands that remain unaltered and "unimproved,"

resort the greylag geese in thousands to pa.s.s the winter.