HINTS ON EAST AFRICAN STALKING, ETC. 187 
of quail, as well as enormous hosts of duck and geese of 
- various kinds on the Jakes and large lagoons, together with two 
species of snipe. All these add very considerably to the charm 
of a shooting trip, and afford a pleasant change from the rifle to 
the shot-gun, besides agreeably altering the monotonous menu 
of antelope venison or tough rhinoceros or buffalo steak. 
As then, all the big game in British East Africa should be 
killed by honest stalking, without the aid of horses, and as the 
first principles of stalking have been dealt with elsewhere in 
these volumes, it only remains for me to call attention to a few 
points peculiar to stalking in East Africa. 
To deal first with the wind, which here, as elsewhere, is 
the first matter for a stalker to consider, it may be said that in 
the plains and fairly open country the wind is generally 
steady in one quarter or another between the hours of eight 
or nine A.M. and sundown, except when the monsoons are 
beginning to change, and then it is constantly chopping and 
veering round from point to point throughout the day. In the 
early morning, between daylight and about eight o’clock, it is 
also steady and constant from one quarter, but between eight 
and nine it often chops about before settling into the quarter 
from which it will continue to blow for the rest of the day. 
That is to say, when the sportsman leaves camp at daylight 
_ the wind may be blowing from the south-east and will continue 
so up to any time between seven and nine o’clock, when, after 
chopping about for a short time, it will settle into another 
quarter, say north-east, for the rest of the day. In forest, thick 
_ bush, and long grass, it is often apt, at all times of the day, to 
be very changeable and uncertain, and may chop round in 
eddies when least expected, and this is what often makes 
_ Shooting in these places so disappointing. It is therefore 
_ mecessary to constantly test the wind. The most convenient 
_and effectual way of doing this“is to pick up and let fall from 
_ the hand a little sand, dust, or pulverised leaves. On a very 
still calm day, when there is not enough wind to affect dust 
or dry leaves, a puff of smoke from a pipe or from a match, 
