THE BLACK GEOUSE AND THE PARTRIDGE. 155 



tolerable good blood all over the country, and 

 the farmers and theh^ friends from the towns 

 kill all they can. But they grudge a charge of 

 powder to shoot the great hawks which come 

 round, even following the dogs and catching the 

 birds before their eyes. They have joined the 

 francolin's enemies and turned the balance, and 

 the extinction of these birds is the result. 



They come to all the fields where the 

 Kaffirs grow their Indian corn, and would breed 

 in them, but the boys kill them all. These 

 savages all throw sticks with great precision, 

 and each man or boy carries three or four. 

 We have seen them kill the smallest birds on 

 the wing ; and w^hen they have marked a part- 

 ridge into some long grass, a few of them sur- 

 round him, and he has no more chance of 

 escape than if they were armed with guns. 



The red-wing and the grey- wing partridge, 

 a smaller bird, but faster on the wing [Fran- 

 colinus Levantillii^ and Francolinus Afer\ are 

 rapidly retiring before man, instead of prospering 



