CHAPTER XXII 



BIG GAME AND ITS BIRD-PROTECTORS 



We are apt to consider a task in hand as more 

 difficult than a former object already achieved. Thus in 

 Africa the stalker, crawling over an adamant veld, all 

 but devoid of cover or " advantage," may recall with 

 envy — recall as easy by comparison — the approach to big 

 game on the rug-ored highlands or sheltering rock-ridges 

 of Europe. He may even sigh for the soft sphagnum 

 through which in Scotland the deer-stalker worms his 

 final advance ; yet, at the time, the latter cannot be said 

 really to enjoy the sensation of moss- water penetrating 

 to his chest. 



But in Africa — and especially in the South, under 

 the Tropic of Capricorn, to which regions these remarks 

 more particularly refer — there is a specialised difficulty 

 attending the stalker that is unknown in Europe. That 

 difficulty springs from the habits of certain birds, that 

 make it their business to warn game of the presence of 

 danger. 



True, in Scotland and in Norway alike, the untimely 

 flight of grouse, or a white hare skipping U2:)hill, may, 

 and often does, give a clue to otherwise unsuspecting 

 game. But that is not the specialised difficulty above 

 mentioned. That is merely incidental, and forms an 

 everyday risk of the still-hunter the world over. In 

 Africa that risk is fully as pronounced as elsewhere ; for 

 here the ubiquitous francolin and guinea-fowl, the spur- 

 wing and various other plovers (with sundry mammals), 

 each and all form extraneous sources of danger to the 



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