TRACKS OF BIG GAME 39 



After this the guide was silent as to tracks. 



I had brought a new .22 calibre rifle with a plentiful 

 supply of Hoxsie bullets. This Henry carried, and 

 with deadly skill in its use he abundantly supplied us 

 with all the partridges that we could eat. We had 

 them fried or stewed or roasted, according to the 

 exigencies of the time when they were cooked. 



He shot in all thirty-two of these fat and delicious 

 birds. In the bagging of this number he missed hitting 

 only two ; three got away wounded. One he had to 

 use three bullets on, four of them two bullets, and the 

 others were killed with a single bullet each. Kemark- 

 able shooting, indeed, for a man of his years. 



There's a scarcity of bird life in this section which I 

 cannot account for. The white-throated sparrow, with 

 his plaintive and inimitable song, I frequently heard, 

 and what can be sweeter than his peculiar and ever- 

 pleasing notes, which always seem to come from places 

 where only the deepest solitude reigns. But of other 

 songsters I heard not one. 



The woodpeckers, in scant numbers, it is true, were 

 there ; the giant among them, the " cock of the woods," 

 was often seen. A few sheldrake ducks and three 

 black ducks and one bald pate were all of the duck 

 family seen. One bunch of ring-necked snipe and one 

 grosbeak, with a few yellow-legged snipe, completed the 

 list. 



Not a fox did we see on the trip, although we heard 



