For these animals are beasts-of-prey, and that fact alone implies nothing less than that in their very nature and life-habits they must be more cunning, more astute, than those other creatures (mostly game) on which they are ordained to subsist. Moreover, being nocturnals, their senses of sight, scent, and hearing all far exceed our own, and they possess the enormous advantage that they see equally well in the dark. Wild Spain, with her 56 per cent of desert or sparsely peopled regions, is a paradise for predatory creatures--alike the furred and the feathered--and _alimañas_ abound whether in the bush and scrub of her torrid plains, or amid the heavier jungle of her mountain-ranges. Numerous as they are, yet these night-rovers rarely come in evidence unless one goes expressly in search of them. In regular shooting, with organised parties, they are more or less ignored, or rather they pass unseen through the lines, moving so silently and stealthily and always choosing the thickest covert. With guns from 100 to 200 yards apart and upwards, each intent on the larger game, the secretive _alimañas_ easily get through--indeed, wolves and even big boars, though the crash of brushwood may be heard, often pass unseen. Many unconventional days have the authors enjoyed in express pursuit of these keen-eyed creatures--call them vermin if you will. There are four methods which we have found effective: 1. Short drives of individual jungles where sufficient open spaces occur to leeward to enable the game to be seen. 2. Long drives of extensive jungles, converging on guns placed at points that either command the probable lines of retreat, or cover some other favourite resort wherein the quarry is likely to seek refuge. 3. Calling--in Spanish, _chillando_. 4. Watching at dawn or dusk, either with or without a "drag." * * * * * 1. The first plan is, of course, the simplest; but it must be borne in mind that this is essentially close-quarters' work--hence the utmost silence is necessary. Horses must be picketed at least a mile back, for the clank of hoof on rock or the clashing of the bucket-like Spanish stirrups in bush will awaken even a dormouse. All proceed on foot; and the whole plan having been arranged beforehand, not a word need now be spoken, each gun taking his allotted place in silence. Guns may be as far as 100 yards apart (since mould-shot is effective up to nearly that range) and each man should station himself looking into the beat, so as to command the intervening "opens," while himself absolutely concealed and still as a stone god, since he is now competing with some of the keenest eyes on earth. All the cats, moreover, come on so stealthily, making good their advance yard by yard, that quite possibly a great tawny lynx may be coolly surveying your position ere your eye has caught the slightest movement ahead.