248 A MEDLEY OF SPORT 



The red- winged " partridge," or rather francolin of South 

 Africa, is a fine bird, and when once fairly on the wing 

 he takes almost as much stopping as the " little brown 

 bird " at home. But, like his French cousin, he is an 

 equally good sprinter, and even in scanty cover I have 

 seen these birds run quite a long distance with a dog close 

 on their heels. And so was it on this particular after- 

 noon, for although plenty of francolin were flushed in the 

 long grass, they would, in the majority of cases, run until 

 well out of shot ; then get up and drop again in another 

 part of the cover. Consequently the bag, when counted 

 at the close of the third and last beat, was found to con- 

 tain but 5| brace of " red wings," a korhaan, and a 

 leash of hares. 



The last bit of grass-cover having been beaten out, 

 a move was made towards the little lagoon mentioned 

 earlier herein; for the sinking of the sun towards the 

 western horizon told us that ere long the evening flight 

 of the fowl would begin, and a small " gaggle " of spur- 

 wing geese circling the water proclaimed that the pan 

 was not uninhabited. Indeed, upon every little pool of 

 water in South Africa wildfowl of many kinds will nearly 

 always be found. 



A quarter of an hour's walking brought us to some 

 huge outcrops, which lay but a few hundred yards from 



the northern shore of the lagoon, where E said he 



had enjoyed some good flight shooting the preceding 

 season. 



Each man took up a position behind one of the out- 



