150 SHIKAR SKETCHES. 



the edge of the water were the footprints of cattle 

 made when the mud was soft, but they were now 

 baked hard and dry by the sun. On the point of 

 turning back, and roundly abusing my guide, I 

 caught the glitter of an eye in one of these de- 

 pressions made by cattle's feet, so out of mere 

 wantonness, I suppose, I fired at it. Nothing 

 moved, however ; but, on going up to the spot, 

 what was my delight to find five snipe all quite 

 dead, and packed into the hole as if in a nest ! 

 Needless to add, my native guide did not get the 

 ' bamboo backsheesh ' with which I was so nearly 

 threatening him. 



To return to our quail, however. The grey, or 

 c rain ' quail, is migratory, and comes in large 

 numbers about August or September. It then 

 affords very pretty shooting, and large bags are 

 often made. They frequent the grain, and 

 4 gram ' fields, and are so numerous that three or 

 four fields will often give you a good day's work 

 to shoot. I remember when at Roorkee, in 1868, 

 myself and two brother-officers in a couple of 

 hours in one field of about thirty acres bagging 

 seventy-two brace. Of course we lost a lot more 

 which we did not pick up. The plan is to walk 

 along in line, having two or three beaters between 

 each gun. The great flight lasts about a fortnight 



