8o THE RED FOREST AND 



open shooting for some time, I thought it better to 

 part with her. I am told that throughout the Kuban 

 district, the tremendous frost of 1876, together with 

 the floods of the same year, destroyed most of the 

 pheasants. They certainly seemed scarcer than 

 they were during my previous visit. 



At night, sitting up for big game, I saw a few 

 woodcock flitting bat-like across the rides, but let 

 them alone for fear of disturbing better game. 

 The night was lovely ; the fleecy white clouds, 

 floating through the network of dark branches, 

 produced a most charming effect. Of all the bird- 

 mimics I ever met, commend me to the owls 

 you meet with here. At one moment they bark 

 like a fox ; at another, yell like an evil-minded 

 infant ; at another, you hear them grunting like 

 swine, and creep on noiseless feet towards the spot, 

 rifle ready in hand ; and then the wretches shriek 

 out in eldritch laughter at your mistake, and flap 

 clumsily off to repeat the trick further on. 



My last day in the Red Forest was spent in an 

 ' ablouva ' (drive), which, being utterly mismanaged, 

 resulted in nothing but a wild cat and a few hares. 

 In the evening the German colonel and myself had 

 a very hot discussion about the habits of the 

 pheasants. He apparently had shot both the 

 ordinary and the silver pheasant in different parts 

 of Asia, and stoutly maintained that the pheasant 

 never roosted on a tree or bush, but invariably on 



