Though we have ourselves (maybe from "insular prejudice") systematically refused to see the _reclamo_ work his treacherous rôle, yet many Spanish sportsmen are enthusiastic over the system, which they describe as _una faena muy interesante_, and are as proud of their call-birds as we of our setters. The _reclamos_ may be of either sex. The cock-partridges become past-masters of the art of calling up their wild rivals from afar; and by a softer note the wild hen is also lured to her doom--for the dual influences of love and war are both called into play. The male hears the defiant challenge of battle and, all aflame, hurries by alternative flights and runs to seek the unseen challenger. As distance lessens the fire of each taunt increases, and, blind with passion, the luckless champion dashes on to that fatal opening where he is aligned by barrels peeping from the thicket. The female, with more tender purpose, also draws near--the seductive love-note entices; but, oh! the wooing o't--a few pellets of lead end that idyll. It is then--when either rival or lover, it matters not which, lies low in death alongside his cage--that the well-constituted _reclamo_ shows his fibre. So overcome with savage joy, the narrow cage will scarce contain him as he bursts into exultant pæons of victory. On the other hand, sullen disappointment is exhibited by the decoy when his exploit has only resulted in a missed shot. In the spring the female call-note is more effective than that of the male. Well-trained _reclamos_ may be worth anything from £2 up to £10. Recently a yearly licence of ten shillings per bird has been levied. This has either reduced their numbers, or perhaps caused them to be kept more secretly. Formerly a _cicada_ in a tiny cage and a _reclamo_ in its conical prison were contiguous objects in almost every doorway. Ground-game is the special favourite of the Spanish cazador. He will search hundreds of acres for a problematical hare, and a long day's hunt with his trusty _pachón_ is amply rewarded by a couple or two of diminutive rabbits about half the weight of ours, but whose speed verily stands in inverse ratio. For the life of the Spanish rabbit is passed in the midst of alarms; supremely conscious of soaring eagles and hawks overhead, he never willingly shows in the open by daylight, or if forced to it, then terror lends wings to his feet. The death of a hare, however, represents to the cazador the climax of terrestrial triumph. In those ecstatic moments the animal (average weight 4-1/2 lbs.) is held aloft by the hind-legs, a subject for admiration and self-gratulation; mentally it is weighed again and again to a chorus of soliloquising ejaculations, "Grande como un chivo" = as big as a kid!