98 Sport and Life in the Further Himalaya 



the downward direction, or, if the valley is suffi- 

 ciently narrow, both sides are taken at once. 



The usual formation for the beaters is that of a 

 horse-shoe when two sides of a valley are taken, 

 or a half horse-shoe for one side. The flankers 

 proceed straight up the hillside in single file 

 before the drive begins, and after climbing up a 

 certain height so as to be well above the birds, 

 turn at right angles and station themselves at 

 intervals right up to the guns. Their duties are 

 to act as stops and prevent the birds running up, 

 and these they carry out by keeping up a contin- 

 ual cannonade of stones down the hillside (often 

 pleasant for the beaters !), not to speak of yells ; 

 in fact, they do anything that occurs to them both 

 to keep the birds in the drive and to prevent 

 them pitching among the screes or on bluffs of 

 the hillside. After his first or second flight, a 

 chakor sits very tight when he gets among rocks 

 and boulders, and is often passed over. Often 

 too, when put up a second time, they fly back over 

 the beaters' heads, and when they once start in 

 the wrong direction nothing on earth the beaters 

 can say or do will stop them. As for the guns, 

 needless to say there are no butts, and they have 

 to take their chance in the open, or behind bushes 

 or boulders as fate may decree ; and if a level 

 square yard or even less offers on which one can 



