A MIXED BAG IN ORANGE RIVER COLONY 139 



grouse. Once more I missed clean witli my first, but — 

 probably more by luck than judgment — a couple of the 

 bald pates dropped to the contents of my second barrel. 

 The drive was now over, and the boys were set to work 

 to gather the slain. A goodly number of cripples, 

 doubtless, evaded the not over-vigilant eyes of our 

 human retrievers by hiding among the dense aquatic 

 growth, only to fall a prey to an aasvogel, chanting 

 goshawk, or some other feathered marauder of the 

 veldt. Be this as it may, the bag when laid out on the 

 shelving shore of the lagoon made a very decent show, 

 and included francolin, hare, spur -wing geese, duck, 

 coots, snipe and ringed plover. 



The remainder of the morning was spent on the veldt, 

 and ere we sat down to tiffin, under the shade -giving 

 spur of our kopje, several more brace of francolin and a 

 beautiful silver korhaan (lesser bustard) had been 

 added to the bag. 



