192 A MEDLEY OF SPOET 



owing to the height and density of the herbage through 

 which it was passing. Then, for some little time, nothing 

 wearing either fur or feather was moved; but while 

 walking on the outskirts of a strip of ^mcopi thorns a 

 red-crested bustard rose silently, and just out of shot 

 of me. After a short, wavering kind of flight, the 

 beautiful bird pitched into a patch of grass and sage 

 bush, and, knowing the running powers of the bustard 

 family, all haste was made towards the spot. Very 

 carefully did we beat through and through that patch of 

 cover, but, with the exception of a pair of meerkats, which 

 stood up on their hindlegs and gazed at us with wonder- 

 ing eyes, not a living creature w^as there to be seen, and 

 I began to think that the bustard had stolen away to 

 safer harbourage. But a yell of " Nansiya ; nansiya " 

 (There he is ; there he is) from Jacob, who was walking 



between H and myself, caused me to look round, and 



the next moment I had the unspeakable pleasure of 

 seeing the bird we were in search of double up like a 

 mottled rag to the contents of my companion's right 

 barrel. My turn was to come, however, as will be shown 

 hereafter. 



" I say, D , don't you think we might manage to 



hustle the pig we saw this morning out of the kloof, if 

 we set the boys and their mongrels to beat the bush ? " 



remarked H , as we sat smoking and resting in the 



shade afforded by a thorn-tree amidst the bush-veldt. 



" The kloof, which is very narrow at this end, only 

 runs a short distance into the kopjes, and the bush is 



