SHOOTING UNDER A KITE 229 



contrivance a realistic appearance of a falcon hovering over 

 its quarry preparatory to making a " stoop." The price 

 of a hawk-kite in silk is £i is., in twill 15s., and it may be 

 obtained through any London or provincial gunmaker. 



And now for a brief description of a morning's sport 

 on the veld under an artificial peregrine-falcon. 



It was not until we had sojourned for several months 

 in the neighbourhood of Maritzburg that we remembered 

 one of the kites in question was packed away amongst 

 a heterogeneous collection of fishing-tackle and other 

 odds and ends. The district in which we happened to 

 be staying was much overshot, and what little game 

 remained was just about as wild as that which will be 

 found on an English partridge manor in mid-December. 

 In other words, one could seldom get within shot of fran- 

 colin, korhaan, or quail on the veld, or of the duck, 

 teal, and other kinds of wildfowl that inhabited the several 

 pans of water in the neighbourhood. There was too 

 little cover of any sort to shelter guns and make driving 

 practicable, with the exception of here and there a boun- 

 dary beacon placed at wide intervals, and although we 

 erected several artificial butts, or rather blinds, with 

 sage-bushed hurdles, and essayed to drive the birds over 

 them, the game was not worth the proverbial candle, 

 for however straight the driven birds might fly towards 

 the hidden guns to start with, they almost invariably 

 turned off long enough before they were within range, 

 until our grouse -driving scheme was voted a fraud and 

 a delusion by our Natalian friends and fellow gunners. 



One day, however, when we were simply " wasting " for 

 something more worthy to shoot at than clay birds, of 

 which we must have " killed " several hundred " brace " 



