SOUTH AFRICA 17 



winj; ; the bag was limited only by the number 

 you wanted to kill. We counted one hundred after 

 one shoot and found there were eight different 

 species of duck amongst them. Again, too, on 

 an island in one of the vleys, that I had waded 

 out to, eggs of all sizes were lying so thick that 

 I exploded two or three at every step ; so far as 

 I could judge they were all rotten, as they went 

 off with a pop when stepped on. 



It was when I was at Mafeking that a Belgian 

 gentleman, a great naturalist, arrived. He was 

 collecting birds, specimens of the rarer sort, to 

 stuff, and on one occasion he joined our party 

 for a shooting expedition. We took him to where 

 small game, such as bush pheasants, partridges, 

 etc., were plentiful and one of the party shot a 

 small white hawk which the Count asserted was 

 extremely rare. It was only winged ; so, by way 

 of killing it without spoiling the plumage, a pin 

 was pushed through the skull into the brain and 

 the bird placed in a net swung at the back of the 

 cape cart. While we sat at luncheon the hawk, 

 which had meanwhile recovered, fluttered out of 

 the net, and before a shot could be fired the bird 

 had gradually pulled itself together and was gone — 

 an instance of the remarkable vitality of the hawk 

 tribe. 



The most expeditious mode of travelling In those 



B 



