AQUATIC BATTUE. 11 



ference. This the Meer has formed by means 

 of a canal, which being dammed up has over- 

 flowed a large tract of his finest land, in order 

 to obtain one or two days' wild fowl shooting. 

 The said lake too has repeatedly threatened his 

 capital with destruction by the bursting of its 

 bund. The Kulloree, however, is nowhere 

 deep, except in certain places close to the bund ; 

 and, being intersected with bushes and sur- 

 rounded with reeds, affords shelter to water 

 fowl of every sort in myriads, ducks and teal 

 of various kinds ; pelicans and cranes, coots, 

 water-hens, and every species of aquatic bird 

 from the dabchick upwards. As these bu*ds 

 had not heard the sound of a gun for upwards 

 of two years, consequent on the Meer's absence 

 in England, they were less wary at first than 

 wild fowl usually are, and His Highness' me- 

 thod of shooting them would, I think, rather 

 astonish a professional wild fowl shooter from 

 Hampshire or the fens. His Highness' break- 

 fast tent having been pitched near the embank- 

 ment east of the city, I rode out there and 

 found it surrounded by the usual crowd of 

 Mooktyar Kars, Moonshees, Minstrels, Mendi- 

 cants, and the like ; and having submitted some 



