VERT— VERT ; OR PARROT GOSSIP 253 



when he sprang into the air on being touched by the 

 slender tip of the cane he caught and strangled 

 himself. To make the bird sit tight until the noose 

 was actually over his head, we practised various 

 tricks, and a very common one was, on catching 

 sight of the close-squatting partridge, to start 

 plucking feathers from a previously - killed bird 

 hanging to our belt and scatter them on the wind. 

 Sometimes we were saved the trouble of scattering 

 feathers when we were followed by a pair of big 

 carrion hawks on the look-out for an escaped bird or for 

 any trifle we throw to them to keep them with us. 

 The effect was the same in both cases ; the sight of the 

 flying feathers was just as terrifying as that of the 

 big hovering hawks, and caused the partridge to sit 

 close. 



This way of taking the tinamu may seem un- 

 sportsmanlike. Well, if I were a boy in a wild 

 land again — with my present feelings about bird 

 life, I mean — I should not do it. Nor would I 

 shoot them ; for I take it that the gun is the deadliest 

 instrument our cunning brains have devised to 

 destroy birds in spite of their bright instinct of self- 

 preservation, their faculty of flight, and their 

 intelligence. It is a hundred times more effective 

 than the boy-on-horseback's long cane with its 



