IN EPIRUS 149 



this was only one of many occasions on which Kollio's 

 dispositions failed from his neglecting to consider the 

 wind. However, we were both posted in a hollow 

 road so narrow that it would have taken a first-class 

 rifle-shot to have made sure of a pig. For the rest of 

 the short beat woodcock kept flapping over my head 

 in a lazy and tempting manner, but elsewhere we did 

 not see a great many of these birds during our trip. 



After lunch we had to walk some little way to our 

 positions, which, being on an open hillside, would 

 have been excellent for shooting, but, unfortunately, 

 the beat was entirely blank. After this we did little 

 more than turn round whilst they beat a belt of thick 

 covert running down to a lakelet with marshy banks. 

 Unfortunately this side of the hill was much more 

 covered with thorn bushes. The beat was approach- 

 ing its end when I caught sight of a boar passing 

 some hundred yards below me. I could see little 

 more than the withers, but there was little chance of 

 a better view, so I took a snap-shot, the only eflect 

 of which was, as the tracks subsequently proved, to 

 increase the pace of the animal. The report of my 

 weapon (I was using a 20 -bore shot - and - ball gun) 

 was followed by ear-piercing shrieks from three girls 

 gathering brushwood three hundred yards away. As 

 one of them was on the ground I was naturally much 

 alarmed ; but when they had scored ofl* me suflSciently 

 they picked up their bundles and walked ofl". 



Shooting in this district — with ball at any rate — 

 requires great care. I subsequently discovered three 

 horses in the direct line in which I had fired, and 

 which had previously been hidden from me by a dip 

 in the ground. The next, a short beat and blank 

 of all but woodcock, brought us back to our landing- 



