I4& Sporting Notes in the Far East. 



with a loud crash into the tall reeds, and the keen little fako 

 peregrino had to sail away defeated. 



I fancy the duck's nerves must have been very rudely shaken by 

 his last narrow escape, for when I walked up, he did not rise till I 

 was close upon him, affording an easy shot. 



He proved to be one of the largest mallards that I had ever 

 bagged, and I give his weight, 2lbs. i3ozs. 



It was also while at Chefoo, that I was once the amused spectator 

 of a native quail hunt, the scene taking place in the Bois dt 

 Boulogne, and the whole business was most quaint. The Bois 

 itself, is made up of a large sandy waste covered with a quantity of 

 small isolated trees, with the intervals filled up with bunches of low 

 scrub dotted about like currant bushes. 



The hunting party generally consists of about twenty Chinamen, 

 all armed with long and formidable sticks, with the exception of 

 one of their number having in addition, a small cast net of about 

 a fathom and a half square. 



The hunt (for it is nothing else), is organized in this manner 

 The whole gang form themselves into a rough kind of line with the 

 retiarius in the middle, walk up the wood, and beat the bushes as 

 they go. Soon a general yell announces that an illfated quail 

 has been flushed, and everyone now stands still, till the little bird 

 has been carefully marked down after his short flight ; this done 

 amidst breathless excitement, the man with the net creeps cau- 



