A TOWERER. 19 



I stood, and promptly the contents of both barrels 

 rattled audibly on its beautiful variegated cinnamon- 

 brown plumage, I felt confident that I had done 

 some damage, for my double- barrel, a lo-bore, was 

 a remarkably hard hitter, and I had that intuitive 

 knowledge, which all experienced sportsmen are aware 

 of, which tells that I had held my tubes straight. 



For the first fifty paces the pauw indicated no 

 other acknowledgment of the peppering I had given 

 him save by parting with a few feathers ; but now 

 the affair took a different phase, for the stricken 

 bird commenced towering in gradually increasing 

 circles, with a velocity and strength of wing scarcely 

 to be expected from such mammoth game. 



To so great an altitude did it ascend that it quite 

 strained my vision to retain sight of it, and I fear 

 I was almost about to give up the task of tracing 

 its erratic flight, when downward it descended, not 

 perpendicularly, but at about an angle of 45 degrees, 

 which caused it to pitch into an open stretch of bare 

 ground several hundred yards in front of myself and 

 friend. The pauw was not dead, so, instead of 

 turning upon his back, as most towerers do under 

 such circumstances, he simply pulled himself together 



c 2 



