126 SHIKAR SKETCHES. 



pleasant comrade, many a beat for large game, 

 both successful and the reverse, passed amongst the 

 wild scenery in which the peafowl delights. 



You are forthwith fired with sporting ardour, 

 and sally forth to obtain the coveted prize which 

 you fondly imagine, with such numbers of the game 

 calling all round you, will be a comparatively easy 

 task. 



How wofully disappointed, and how bitterly 

 disgusted you will be, when, having seen from 

 some eminence a magnificent bird feeding in a 

 cleared patch of the jungle, you expend much 

 time and patience in keeping up to your game 

 through tangled thickets of thorn that not only 

 try your temper, but damage your clothes, you at 

 last arrive at the scene of action, only perhaps to 

 catch a hasty glimpse of a peahen's head as she 

 darts into the thick undergrowth ! 



Surely, you think, there must be a little bit of 

 open ahead of you, and the birds are so large you 

 are bound to get a shot as they rise, or run across 

 the open space, and if a shot, you cannot miss. 



Vain delusion. Suddenly all round, in front 

 and rear, right and left, there arises such a 

 flapping of wings as fairly bewilders you, and 

 though each bird as he rises utters his loud cry 

 of alarm, not a feather is visible. 



