CHAPTER XXX 



GAME BIRDS FOR SPORT AND FOR THE POT 



Although big game shooting may provide the finer 

 sport, and is, of course, the great inducement which 

 attracts travellers and tourist sportsmen to the 

 Protectorate, perhaps bird-shooting gives to the farmer 

 and settler a more continuous pleasure. The shooting 

 of the commoner plain-dwelling antelope soon tends to 

 become more pain than pleasure, while the shooting of 

 the more dangerous kinds of game is too exciting and 

 too strenuous to give the relaxation required for a 

 short holiday from hard work. British East Africa is 

 very well off as regards variety of game-birds and 

 fairly so as regards quantity. Unfortunately, the 

 quality of the sport that they provide is not quite so 

 great as might be wished. The following are the 

 varieties which for our purpose may be described as 

 gamebirds : Bustards, guinea-fowl, francolin — usually 

 called, though quite, incorrectly, partridge — quail, snipe, 

 ducks, sand-grouse, and pigeons. 



Of these the ducks, snipe, and bustards perhaps 

 provide the best food, and the sandgrouse and pigeons 

 the best sport. 



Of sandgrouse we have four varieties : the pintailed, 

 the bridled, the chestnut-vented, and the close-barred. 



