A Sportsman at Large 235 



in orthodox Bedouin style remote from the busy life of Cairo. 

 Our sleeping tent was certainly decorative, but not altogether 

 savoury. To put it mildly, it was decidedly stuffy and 

 reeked of native odours. 



The first night an owl of the species known as " Little " 

 persisted in serenading me with its feline-like mewings, as 

 it sat on one of the guy-ropes of our kitchen tent. Its far 

 from dulcet notes so got on my nerves, that I made a target 

 of it for- my revolver ; but my practice was by no means 

 accurate. Its report, however, moved the abhorrent bird for 

 the nonce ; but it soon returned, and growing accustomed to 

 the explosion, it refused to budge, but continued its irritating 

 " recital " until the first glimmer of a hopeless dawn warned 

 it that it was time for it to seek repose. Then a chorus of 

 frogs arose, such as would have delighted the soul of Aris- 

 tophanes, but which left me cold. There must have been 

 hundreds of the sprightly reptiles within a few yards of the 

 tent. They voiced their raucous cacophony so persistently 

 and continuously that, not being able to stand their con- 

 certed croakings any longer, I went out in my pyjamas with 

 a view to scattering the disturbers of my slumbers to the four 

 winds of Heaven ; but, search as I would, not a single frog 

 could I discover. 



The " sport " which our dragoman had promised proved a 

 veritable " dud." There were no snipe, no duck not even 

 the homely pigeon was in evidence. The only fowl that we set 

 eyes on until we arrived at the shores of the ancient lake 

 were parti-coloured kingfishers and a few egrets or paddy- 

 birds. But when the waters were reached, we could see 

 numerous pelicans floating on the placid suiface. In the 

 silvery mist of the morning they appeared about the size 

 of ostriches, and seemed to be quite tame until our 

 boat was within a couple of hundred yards of them ; but 

 without appearing in the least bit of a hurry, they managed 

 to keep that distance between our craft and their tail 

 feathers. 



I thought to spring a surprise on them with my rook- 

 rifle, but though my leaden missiles fell with a " plomp " 

 in close proximity to the plethoric body of one of the tribe, 



