422 SPORT IN EUROPE 



Asiatic is a smooth black -and -tan. This pack was out on a 

 recent occasion, and only two came back unmarked by wild boar, 

 which proves their courage. Visitors can be, and occasionally are, 

 invited to participate in the club hunts. The venue is usually on 

 the Asiatic shore of the Bosphorus or in the Gulf of Ismidt, sports- 

 men and hounds being conveyed in a steam-tug. 



Constantinople itself affords excellent sport in the immediate 

 neighbourhood. At the end of August the flight of quail begins, 



and in a crood vear enormous numbers are killed. The 

 Quail. ^ ^ 



favourite o-round, which for some occult reason the 



quail invariably prefer to any other, is San Stefano, about one hour 



by tram from the capital. The fields are parched and almost bare, 



and every small tuft of grass, big clod, or furrow, seems sometimes 



to shelter a bird. Kilios, on the Black Sea, is the only other spot 



which provides anything like the same quantity, being apparently 



the point of arrival, as San Stefano is that of departure. 



About fifty miles lower down the Marmora than San Stefano 



is the village of Herekly, also much favoured by the quail. The 



natives there seldom use a gun, but take thousands with 



, , . hawks and nets. A o-ood hawk will catch over a 



hawking. * 



hundred, and seldom kill one. The nets used are 

 like common butterfly nets, only stouter, and some of the netters 

 go to the luxury of a donkey, affording a most comical sight. It 

 requires some practice and sharp eyes to see a squatting quail, but 

 they rarely pass one, as can be proved by going over the same ground 

 after them with a dog. The hawks are trained a few weeks pre- 

 viously, and turned loose at the end of the season as not being worth 



