418 LARGE GAME. CHAP. ix. 



and peculiar one, and as they do not utter it at night, 

 unless disturbed, their voice is considered by the native 

 hunters to be a warning that something is prowling about 

 their camp, and, on one occasion, I became aware through 

 it of the otherwise noiseless approach of a lion. I have 

 personally killed but very few, though not from want of 

 opportunity, but certainly from five to ten couple might be 

 got on most days by any one who cared to shoot them. 



Quails of two kinds are to be found, and on the up- 

 land flats and in the opens between the coast forests they 

 aiford fair sport, from ten to twenty brace being occasion- 

 ally killed. The common quail (Coturnix dactylisonans) is 

 somewhat rare, though arriving in considerable numbers 

 from July to September according to locality, but they 

 soon become scattered, and it is not usual to get 

 more than three or four brace in a day. The smaller sort, 

 however, which breeds in the colony of Natal, is more 

 plentiful ; and though next to impossible to flush the 

 second time, exists in sufficient numbers to insure a 

 respectable bag. They nearly always go in pairs, and are 

 very partial to native footpaths or cattle tracks, along 

 which they run till forced to rise, and no bird gives more 

 trouble to the pointer, as, while emitting a strong scent, it 

 keeps twisting in and out among the tufts of grass under 

 the dog's very nose, utterly refusing to rise and be shot. 



Both the common and painted snipe are not uncom- 

 mon, and afford good sport in many of the low bottoms 

 and marshes on the coast, bags of twenty-five and thirty 

 couple not being unusual ; while among the bays on the 

 sea-shore wild-fowl of all kinds are abundant, and there 

 is even better shooting in the small ponds and lagoons 



