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swept wildly over the camp. Our dragoman Hassan crept 

 from tent to tent, and hammered the pegs more firmly into 

 the ground ; but a side of the one in which my uncle and I 

 were sleeping was torn away by the squall, and wakened by 

 the cold current of air we saw the starry sky smiling down 

 into our dwelling. Luckily all damages were soon repaired, 

 and towards morning the storm abated. 



We breakfasted at a very early hour, before sunrise, as 

 we intended to distribute ourselves along the shore of the 

 island to watch the flight of the waterfowl and to select good 

 positions where we could lie in wait for them. 



As soon as we left the tents we saw numbers of birds 

 already on the wing, such as cormorants, various kinds of 

 ducks, herons, and pelicans. The latter have a very funny 

 appearance, for their long bills hang down in a comical 

 fashion, and they evidently find it difficult to buoy up their 

 great heavy bodies, even with such enormous wings as they 

 possess. Nevertheless their powers of flight are strong and 

 enduring. 



The Grand Duke and I went to the flat shore near the 

 camp and hid ourselves as well as we could. Many sorts of 

 birds came past, some of which we shot, and altogether the 

 flight was a remunerative one, for we had only to wait a 

 short time between the shots. We also obtained the Pied 

 Kingfisher, that large but inferior edition of our kingfisher, 

 but unfortunately no pelicans, for they passed us out of 

 range. 



Shots sounded from all sides, so we had hopes of a good 

 bag. On this first occasion the birds were not at all shy, 

 but in a couple of days we had exterminated the stock of 

 game on the island, and the flocks avoided the dangerous 

 rocks by making long detours. 



The morning flight was over in an hour, and we returned to 



