26 WITH BOAT AND GUN IN THE YANGTZE VALLEY. 



The natives take due note of the arrival of the birds, notice where they feed and 

 promptly " feed " the ground with paddy or small beans. The bait, if possible, is so laid 

 that it will draw the birds close up to some dyke or creek so that they must rise hurriedly 

 and thus give a comparatively easy shot. Should the birds be feeding in the open the natives 

 approach them in their reed-carts or make use of the buffalo as a stalking horse, by both 

 of which devices they get uncommonly near to their quarry and often shoot it as it runs, 

 knowing as all hunters know that : — 



" The big-boned bustard, there, whose body bears that size 

 That he against the wind must run e'er he can rise." 

 These birds are capital eating whether roasted and served with a brown sauce or cold with 

 the adjuncts of lemon and red pepper. 



Curiously enough it differs from the domestic turkey in this respect that its breast is 

 dark flesh and its legs are white, which is exactly the opposite of what is found in the 

 domesticated bird. 



The Chinese use the larger sizes of their mixed iron shot when after this bird, but 

 ordinary No. 2 shot will be found to answer all purposes. 



The Hill Pigeon {Turtur rupkola). 



Though really a dove this bird very closely resembles the pigeon, by which name it is 

 commonly called. In its large size, bluish appearance when on the wing, its note of cooing 

 and its clinch in flight it might be mistaken for the domesticated blue rock. Though " a 

 hill bird and frequenting firwoods at a considerable elevation " and withal a rock inhabi- 

 tant, as its name implies, it is by no means rare on the plains of these provinces, and it 

 may regularly be come across in large flOcks in the winter months as they speed to roost in 

 the tall, thickly leaved trees in the Pasali creek, near Hai E, amongst other spots in the 

 neighbourhood of the Hangchow Bay. 



It is a good table bird, beyond compare superior to the poor little Chinese dove 

 {Turtur sinensis) so common in the covers round every village, and so ruthlessly shot by 

 irresponsible gunners. 



GROUND GAME. 

 The Local or River Deer {Hydropotes inertnis). 



Most interesting descriptions of the ground game of the Yangtze Valley are to be 

 found in Mr. Styan's contribution on the subject. It is scarcely necessary to say more here 

 than that there is no such thing as the systematic shooting of ground game in this country, 

 except perhaps in the case of pigs which have to be driven so as to afford the gun a shot. 

 But even then there is little or no system in the driving. Deer and hares are "happened" 

 upon most unexpectedly without any effort on the shooter's part to find them. 



The local deer, generally and most ignorantly spoken of as the hog deer, a name 

 applicable only to the Indian species with small antlers, is the hornless river deer. It 

 possesses but one of the characteristics of deer, viz., speed. The senses of hearing, sight 

 and smell are by no means acutely developed, or the gun would never get the close easy 

 shots which this animal invariably offers. Again they differ from deer generally in that 



