276 CASUALS IN THE CAUCASUS 



Cecily and the Prince had drawn blank. They had 

 been trying for ibex in the forest, for these creatures of 

 the mountains often descend to the timber line, where 

 it is very hard indeed to bag them. 



After my trophy had been admired, Keebeet, true 

 to his nature, set someone else to take off the head-skin 

 the while he sat and looked on and tried to look as 

 though he was doing the whole job himself. They were 

 all ignorant of the simplest rules of taxidermy, and it 

 ended with my doing the major part of the dissection 

 myself. The skull I placed in an ant heap, knowing 

 the Kouban ants ! They picked it clean, as I wished 

 them to do, then started in on the bones. In a day the 

 great head was denuded. 



That night we heard the stags roaring for hours. 

 We sat by the window listening to them, trying to 

 locate the sounds, but the soft liquid notes of a night- 

 jar frustrated us. As the bird wheeled past against a 

 light sky, it seemed to us that it was of the pennant- 

 winged variety, for a little banner fluttered from each 

 wing. 



I wish I knew whether the pennant-winged night- jar 

 got his ornament from sexual or from natural selection. 

 Cecily argues that it must be the latter, just because 

 she has read so many authorities who support that 

 generally accepted theory. What I want to know is, 

 why, if it is merely a natural selection, is it donned in 

 the courting and breeding season ? 



A chamois and ibex drive was to be the order of our 

 next day, and as this was the manner in which our 

 Prince, who knew little or nothing of stalking as we 



