188 A MEDLEY OF SPOET 



The naked Kaffirs now advanced, yelling and splasliing 

 like devils incarnate. A gaggle of between thirty and 

 forty spur -wings were first put up by the yelling herd, 

 and with loud trumpetings they flew down the lagoon 

 straight for my companion's blind. The sharp eyes of 

 the great birds must have " twigged " some portion of 



H 's anatomy through the openings in the reed-cover, 



however, for while yet a good 60 yards distant they 

 suddenly turned of! left-handed, and away across the 

 veldt they flew in > -shaped formation. Not one of 

 those geese showed the slightest sign of damage from the 



double dose of No. 3's which H poured into them, 



but, as many of my readers are aware, it would be a 

 powerful 12 -bore gun that would bring down a tough 

 old spur-wing at 60 yards. My stand being some 



80 yards distant from that of H , I did not, of 



course, get a shot at the geese ; but in this I was not 

 greatly disappointed, for to all intents and purposes we 

 were shooting for the pot, and by no stretch of imagina- 

 tion could even a young spur-wing goose be called a good 

 table-bird. 



A small bunch of coots was next driven forward by the 

 beaters, a couple of which, flying a little apart from their 

 fellows, and coming straight for me at a pace that would 

 not have disgraced driven partridges, offered a sporting 

 "right and left" which I could not resist. Holding, 

 as I imagined, well before the leading bird, I pulled, but 

 he went on without leaving so much as a feather behind, 

 and I only succeeded in dropping his consort with a 



