SAND-GROUSE 37 



places. I should judge that the average time spent 

 by each bird at and around the water was from 

 twenty minutes to half-an-hour. 



It so happened that at Maqua Pool we found on 

 arriving a family or two of Bushmen — the wild 

 Masarwas of the desert — squatting there till the 

 water gave out. These poor people were in a state 

 of semi-starvation, as they often are. Some of the 

 men were to accompany us giraffe hunting the next 

 day, but meantime they all clamoured for food. My 

 friend and I had small compunction, therefore, in 

 shooting a number of sand-grouse for them. In less 

 than two hours of fair shooting we killed eighteen 

 brace, which the Masarwas immediately proceeded 

 to devour, placing the birds, feathers and all, upon 

 the fire, and eating them as soon as the plumage 

 was well scorched. If we had fired into the main 

 troops of the sand-grouse, as they dropped to the 

 water, we could, of course, have slain far more. We 

 merely aimed at birds as they circled swiftly above 

 us. A good part of the time we sat at breakfast 

 with our guns by our sides, jumping up, now and 

 again, to bring down a bird or two. Towards ten 

 o'clock the bands, which had been gradually lessen- 

 ing in number, finally dispersed ; the last of the sand- 

 grouse had drunk their fill for the day, and this 

 beautiful desert scene was ended. Of these South 

 African sand-grouse, the yellow-throated species is, 

 as I say, easily distinguished by its greater size and 



