1 2 By Mountain, Lake, and Plain 



blood, and destroys all good intentions." We 

 need run none of these terrible risks when after 

 black partridges. Apart from the " grinding of the 

 soul," &c., too early a start defeats one's object, 

 as in the cold the birds will not enter into the 

 game. 



The beaters consist of a round half dozen selected 

 from the crowd of loafers that have assembled 

 from the neighbouring village ; men in blue or drab 

 raiment of the Eastern type, with " loins girded," 

 their heads surmounted by felt hats, the colour of 

 mud and shaped like a truncated egg. They are in 

 charge of one Ibrahim (who will frequently 

 figure in these pages), a lad enlisted some 

 years before by the McMahon Boundary Com- 

 mission as guide and boatman, now risen to 

 the proud position of mir shikar or head jdger. 

 Last, but not least, there is my wife, who as 

 usual makes an additional keen and most com- 

 petent beater. 



We soon get to work, the birds rising with 

 the regular partridge whirr. " Blacks " get 

 quickly into their flight, and are strong on the 

 wing ; but when they are lying well, the shooting 

 is not more difficult than "walked up" birds 

 usually are. Our ground is on the fringe of 

 cultivation, tamarisk cover alternating with strips 

 of sown fields already showing the faint green 



