Sport in Syria. 345 



over civil, and although I had deposited the money, 

 I could get no answers until I mentioned his courtesy, 

 or want thereof, in the columns of The Field. I had 

 plenty of cartridge cases, wads and shofc, but did 

 not know what to do for powder still with bribing 

 you can do anything in the Turkish dominions. 

 Also a few piastres judiciously expended, and no 

 questions asked, had their effect, and soon I got all 

 the powder I required. On several occasions I 

 bagged fifty-four, eighty-three, sixty-six, seventy-two 

 brace of cock in one day, besides other game. I 

 always took a donkey with large panniers, which were 

 generally nearly full by the time we left off our 

 labours. I have shot six hares in half an hour. It 

 was a common occurrence to kill two cock at one 

 shot, but I once killed three. 



Starting one morning towards the middle of 

 January, I sent my pony and donkey across an old 

 bridge, and walked along the seashore, crossing the 

 creek near the exit of a river by a boat. It was 

 bitterly cold, and I did not care to fire at quail, the 

 only game so far that I had seen. There must have 

 been thousands of wild ducks in the sea, yet just out of 

 shot ; but in the marshes I was bound for, they were 

 also in hundreds, and far easier to get at than out in 

 the open water. Beyond the fisherman's creek there 

 was a mass of sandy hillocks extending close on to 

 Giblie some ten miles down the coast. Birds con- 

 tinued passing over head but out of shot, so I only got 

 within range of a sand grouse. It allowed me to closely 

 approach it, but I was too proud to shoot it on the 

 ground as I might have done, so allowed it to rise, 

 making sure of it on the wing ; but my fingers 



