142 SHIKAR SKETCHES. 



twitch lie pulls one after another under water by 

 its legs, and runs their heads and necks through 

 his belt, when they are drowned. It is all done 

 so quietly, and with so little motion, that the poor 

 fowl, until their numbers are sadly diminished, 

 take no notice of the treacherous c chatty.' 



The perfection of duck-shooting, though, to 

 my mind is to get into a native dug-out canoe, 

 and, taking your seat at the prow, be gently 

 poled along amongst the openings in the reeds of 

 a large jheel ; you then get very pretty shots, as the 

 disturbed birds rise on each side of you, and keep 

 circling round. As these native craft are, how- 

 ever, decidedly crank, one has to sit pretty steady. 

 My first day's duck-shooting was pursued in this 

 manner on the Munchur jheel, a large shallow 

 lake lying some ten miles inland from the town of 

 Sewhan on the Indus. A brother subaltern and 

 myself were on our way up to join our regiment, 

 and, having heard rosy reports of the sport to Jbe 

 obtained at this jheel, determined to ride out, arid 

 rejoin our steamer the next morning some miles 

 further up the river. I remember we shot in 

 about an hour sixteen couple of duck and teal, 

 and several couple of snipe, nor shall I ever forget 

 the ride we had, some eighty miles on bare-backed 

 ponies, before we caught up our steamer again. 



Of snipe there are five varieties found in India, 



