Sport in Syria. 349 



flew nearly one hundred yards before toppling over, 

 this my dog retrieved. Another I saw separate 

 from its comrades and alight near some bushes, whilst 

 the rest continued their flight ; so I thought that it 

 had received a pellet or two, as I had fired the first 

 barrel at the birds when close together ; so getting off 

 the horse, I approached it in a roundabout way, hiding 

 amongst the bushes ; until I got to where it ought to 

 have been but it was nowhere to be seen. Hearing the 

 flapping of wings behind me, I turned round and got 

 a right and left, at long distances, and the bird 

 fell. I found that one pellet had struck it in the 

 head. I was a long way from home, so turned and 

 made for a favourite snipe ground. Passing a field of 

 beans, which looked miserable enough, having been 

 under snow some days, a lot of cock got up. I fired 

 at the leading one ; two fell. Going to pick them up, 



1 saw another fluttering on the ground ; a stray shot 

 had struck it, so I actually got three cock with one 

 shot. I then got amongst cock and snipe and blazed 

 away till my head ached ; I saw five more of the big 

 birds, but they were too far off. About 4 P.M. I had 

 had enough. Counting the slain, I found that I had 

 137 brace of cock, 29 couple of snipe, 2 bitterns, 



2 ruffs, 9 teals, 12 ducks, 2 francolins, 4 hares, 5 

 partridges (red legs), 3 geese, and 3 flamingoes. 



The game was being shovelled into the panniers 

 again, when I saw twelve or thirteen of the same big 

 birds flying straight towards me. I crammed in two 

 No. 2 shot cartridges, and as they passed overhead, 

 fired. To my great joy, I brought two down, one 

 dead and the other winged, and I found out that 

 they were the great bustard, the first I had ever seen 



