346 Incidents of Foreign Field Sport. 



were so benumbed I made a clean miss ! Further on, 

 on the beach, were five flamingoes. These birds 

 were useless to me except for a few brilliant feathers, 

 but there was a taxidermist 1 in the place who collected 

 and sold birds, so getting up as close as I could I let 

 fly both barrels and killed three ; but the difficulty 

 was how to carry them until I met my attendants. 

 This I solved by hiding them in a bush, in which I 

 stuck a stick with my handkerchief attached to mark 

 the spot, and afterwards continued my course. 

 Leaving the seashore I had to go through a heavy 

 piece of scrub ; out of that three francolins (black 

 partridge) rose. I knocked down two and my spaniel 

 retrieved them. I then missed another, but bowled 

 over a hare. These I thrust into the capacious 

 pockets of my shooting coat but not caring to burden 

 myself with more game, I made for the rendezvous, 

 now not far distant, where my nags were to be in 

 waiting. I got there in half an hour. The servants 

 had not arrived, but I could see them in the distance. 

 It was too cold to sit down, so I walked about briskly, 

 and put up two more hares, shooting one and missing 

 the other. My people were soon up. Depositing the 

 game in the panniers, I sent the moke back for the 

 flamingoes, and mounting the horse rode on to some 

 " bheels " which were about a mile ahead. Long before 

 I got there I heard the quacking of numerous ducks. I 

 got a pot shot, and at the report four teal and a duck 

 lay dead ; one or two cripples went away, and the 



1 A Pole who had been with Maximilian in Mexico in com- 

 mand of a battery of Artillery, and had been terribly wounded. 

 He was a refugee, and his family were detained in Russia and all 

 his property confiscated. 



