XII 



WILD DOGS 



I WENT to Baroda Territory to try for some small 

 game shooting. My husband and I had shot 

 before in those parts and sometimes had won- 

 derful sport there. I remember one day riding out 

 eight or nine miles to some fields that held immense 

 numbers of grey quail, and I shot forty brace before 

 breakfast, and then sent word to my husband to 

 come, as the place was so good. I forget what the 

 total bag for the day was, but we had to wear leather 

 boots on the guns, as the barrels were too hot to hold. 

 The quail were not wasted because we were sending 

 them in for the use of a big guest camp. 



I had no small game shooting for some time, and 

 the next occasion was in Scotland, where I was dis- 

 gusted to find I could not touch a feather, which 

 did much more hurt to my vanity than to the birds. 

 The good shooting places often vary so much in 

 India, in different years, that a good place one season 

 may hold nothing the next. This year happened 

 to be a very poor one, and though my shooting had 

 come back to me a bit I never made a bag worth 

 speaking of ; and z.s usual the coolies were so much 

 more intent on picking up the empty cartridge cases 

 than the snipe or quail that often birds were lost 

 that they should have marked down. 



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