SMALL GAME SHOOTING. 127 



Or perhaps you do see them as they rise. You 

 cannot miss a thing as big as a haystack ! you 

 must bag a couple. You'll knock over the old 

 cock, and get a hen with your left barrel ! 



c What, not down ! Very odd, I heard the shot 

 strike/ you say to yourself. 



Bang ! goes your left barrel without any further 

 acknowledgment from the cock than an increased 

 flapping of wings as the magnificent bird steadies 

 himself in his flight, then skims over the tree-tops 

 in that valley at your feet, and perhaps, as if to 

 convince you that you have not damaged him 

 much, ends up by running some fifty yards, and 

 finally disappears from your gaze. 



This sort of thing perhaps goes on for years, and 

 each time you vow you will not trouble yourself 

 about the brutes any more ; and yet when the 

 chance again offers itself you repeat the attempt, 

 though probably, as in most other things by this 

 time, you will have learnt experience, and some- 

 thing of the habits of the bird, and will therefore 

 be more likely to have your latter efforts crowned 

 with success. 



There is no doubt about it that in thick jungle 

 a peacock is a most difficult bird to circumvent, 

 and in stalking him in such ground you must 

 proceed with the utmost caution, and not be in a 



