250 A MEDLEY OF SPORT 



in quick succession, and three ducks double up instanter. 

 The rest of the bunch wheel, and come past my stand at a 

 tremendous pace. I make a shocking miss with the first 

 barrel, but manage to cut down a duck flying a little 

 apart from his brethren with the second, and have barely 

 time to ram home a couple of fresh cartridges when a 

 heavy " spring " of teal pass clean over my head, and so 

 closely are they packed that four drop to my double dis- 

 charge. 



The air is now fairly alive with fowl, for the reports 

 of our guns have disturbed the feathered inhabitants of 

 the lake, and they appear to be utterly demoralised. 

 For a few minutes duck, teal, and coot wheel round and 

 round the " blinds," and during that short African 

 twilight my fellow -gunners and myself get as much shoot- 

 ing as even the greediest gunner could wish for. But 

 it rapidly grows too dark to distinguish objects moving 

 at even twenty yards distant, and gathering the slain we 

 set off on a bee-line towards camp, guided thither by the 

 cow-dung fire which gleams cheerfully through the fast- 

 gathering darkness. 



