A GUINEA-FOWL DRIVE 129 



savour somewhat of butchery. But a buck is the 

 rara avis of these drives, and is just as eagerly looked for 

 as a woodcock in a covert shoot at home. It may be 

 argued that antelope, big or little, should be shot with 

 the rifle only. This is true where the open veldt is 

 concerned ; but in covert, with beaters working up to 

 the guns, the indiscriminate firing of bullets would be 

 highly dangerous ; and then, are not roe deer often laid 

 low by a charge of shot in EngUsh and Scottish coverts ? 

 Be this as it may, I confess to killing that unfortunate 

 steinbok with No. 3 " chilled " ; and several others of 

 his kind, together with three duiker, were shot in a 

 similar manner during the day's sport. 



But to return to my stand. As the noisy rabble of 

 ebon beaters approached nearer, droves of hares {Lepus 

 capensis) came scuttling through the trees and under- 

 covert, and the firing became general, and almost in- 

 cessant. Beyond a few pheasants, however, which our 

 host had turned down as an experiment, and which we 

 were requested not to shoot, feathered game was con- 

 spicuous by its absence ; and this being my first day's 

 covert shooting in South Africa, I began to wonder what 

 had become of the great numbers of guinea-fowl which 

 Oom Jan had promised to show us. 



The tattered mob of beaters — the more tattered from 

 their march through the undercover — bleeding from a 

 hundred scratches, but happy, now began to make 

 their appearance, not in line, according to orders, but in 

 little bunches of three and four, chattering and gesticu- 



