NATURE AND SPORT IN BRITAIN 



pounds — many colonists say even as much as fifty or 

 sixty pounds — in weight. A fat paauw is sometimes 

 so bursting with good living that, when shot in mid- 

 air, he breaks up on hitting the hard, sun-baked earth, 

 very much as would a jelly. The flesh of this splendid 

 game-bird is delicious eating, and the paauw is one 

 of the greatest luxuries of the hunter's camp fire or 

 the colonist's table. Who that has seen two or three 

 of these noble birds pacing with dignified port quietly 

 hither and thither in the veldt, usually not far from a 

 belt of acacia bush or the thorn jungle of a river- 

 course, can ever forget the sight? The paauw is, how- 

 ever, a difficult bird to stalk, and has many ways of 

 circumventing his pursuers. One of these is a trick 

 of squatting and rendering itself invisible even to the 

 keenest and most observant eye. A squatting paauw 

 has a truly marvellous knack of vanishing from the 

 face of the veldt, how and whither one never quite 

 knows. The flight of these great birds is very 

 majestic ; the strong and apparently slow wing-beats 

 are very deceptive, and the bird cleaves its way through 

 the clear air in reality far faster than one might sup- 

 pose. Many a good paauw falls to the rifle bullet, and 

 the rejoicings in camp when the great bird is brought 

 in are, as may be imagined, loud and sincere. 



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