A Sportsman at Large 215 



and sticky clay ; so that the going was anything but pleasant. 

 There were plenty of snipe, but they were very wild and wary. 

 Among those which found their way into our bag was a speci- 

 men of the painted snipe, a handsome bird, which I had never 

 before seen in the flesh. 



Presently we came to a string of lagoons, dotted over with 

 rush-grown islets. There were a great many duck about, 

 mostly mallard and tufted ; but, like the snipe, they took 

 wing long before we were within shot ; so it became necessary 

 to put in force stalking operations. 



I was wading up to my knees, with a view to taking 

 up position on a tuft of rushes in the middle of the 

 water, when, on reaching this and about to seat my- 

 self comfortably thereon, there was a loud hiss, and a 

 sort of " Jack-in-the-box " demonstration, as a huge yellow 

 cobra uncoiled itself and slithered into the water. I do not 

 know which was the most startled, I or that darned snake. 

 Had he decided to coil himself and strike, as is the lethal 

 custom of its horrible kind, assuredly it would have been 

 all up with your Uncle Cockie ; but, thank goodness, he 

 slipped off smoothly on the " safety first " principle, I 

 suppose. As soon as ever I could recover my nerve, I let 

 him have the contents of my first barrel ; but he dived under 

 water and disappeared, just in time to save his glittering 

 skin. I am sure I didn't want to see him again, dead or 

 alive ! 



The tactics we employed against the duck had no material 

 result ; only one wretched " tufter " falling to a fluky shot of 

 Ted's. But in an adjacent lagoon we had some lively sport 

 with the coots, which swarmed on its surface and among 

 its reed-beds. It was very shallow, so we formed a line, and 

 waded its full length. The birds swam before us until they 

 were hemmed in between our line of beaters and the far edge 

 of the lagoon. Then they rose and streamed back over our 

 heads, affording us some very lively shooting. Quite a score 

 were accounted for, and as these bald-headed birds do not 

 lend themselves kindly to the culinary art, we made a hand- 

 some present of them to our tatterdemalion army. Later, 

 we were surprised to find that the ungrateful varlets had 



