IN THE LAND OF THE BORA. 99 



a thorn patch a hundred yards off, but twenty 

 minutes' climb down and up. "We walked through 

 it ; no result. Then we returned, Ante throwing 

 stones into every bush. Again he got ahead. 

 Whirr ! bang ! a clear miss to the Morlak. We 

 got another mark, however, but again failed at first 

 to find the bird. Ante again went on alone to an 

 outlying patch, threw in a stone, and missed an 

 easy shot clean. He then commenced to explain 

 that he hadn't his own gun, and that his shot (No. 

 5, for I saw it) was too small for jarebica, as they 

 call these birds in the local dialect. 



The bird had now made for the tremendous 

 precipices above the village of Zakusac, but Ante 

 thought he had a mark, and went off a third time 

 in pursuit. He left his gun, for, as he grimly 

 remarked, he could not use it there, anyway. He 

 clambered about the cliffs for some time without 

 any result, and then I went home, promising to 

 join him next morning. Next day, however, it 

 poured all day. 



Although I did not handle one that day, I may 

 as well take this opportunity of describing the 

 bird known by so many different names,* and 

 which, as I do not know of any English name to 

 call it by, I have hitherto spoken of as the stone- 



* German, stein-huhn ; Italian, coturno or gallctto di monte ; 

 Illyrian, jarebica; Latin, Perdix grxca, according to some 

 authorities P. saxatilis. 



