SMALL GAME SHOOTING. 125 



acceptable. Let me begin my list, therefore, 

 with the peacock,* firstly because he is the most 

 gorgeous of all game, and secondly because each 

 fresh sportsman, when first landing, longs for the 

 time and opportunity to kill one, and obtain one 

 of those magnificent green trains more than four 

 feet long, which, overshadowing the true tail, 

 makes such a handsome trophy. 



If there be satisfaction and all we shooters know 

 that there is in dropping a brace of partridges 

 neatly right and left, still more in bowling over 

 an old cock grouse in a ' drive/ as he comes past 

 you like a bullet, and greatest of all in making a 

 pretty shot at a woodcock as he turns and twists 

 among the trunks and trees of a thick cover, how 

 intense must be the glory and delight of killing a 

 peacock ! 



Alas ! the reality of peacock-shooting will surely 

 disenchant anyone holding these views. 



Imagine yourself, kind reader, some morning, 

 when just at daylight close to your line of march, 

 you hear from forest and hill all round you that 

 wild call of 'Mee-aw, mee-aw, tok-tok,' so well 

 known to all who have trod the paths of the 

 jungles, and so musical to their ears; for, hear it 

 when or how they may, it will recall many a happy 

 day spent on mountain, or in forest, many a 



* Pavo cristatus. 



