‘366 . ' THE ZOOLOGIST. 
work on the ‘Game Birds of India.’ The hill-side on which 
they were found was composed of a number of little cliffs one 
above the other, each perhaps from twenty to thirty feet high, 
broken up by ledges on which one could barely walk, thickly set 
with grass and bushes, and dotted sparingly with more or less 
stunted trees, with curious roots hanging down the little cliffs 
and long trailing arms of scarlet creeper. I had a red setter and 
three spaniels with me. The setter was put to range over the 
whole hill-side ; men were stationed at various points to mark 
down the birds while we sat on a knoll opposite and looked on, a 
deep ravine lying between. It was a pretty sight to see the dog 
working half-way up the hill. Soon there might be seen, scuttling 
up hill at an amazing pace, across the little open glades between 
one clump of brushwood and another, a family party of some five 
or six Cheer, their heads down and long tails drooping. The dog 
soon overtook and flushed them, and then all eyes were wanted to 
mark down each bird. The birds have pitched in various places, 
only a little lower than where they were flushed, having wheeled 
round to the right and left soon after they had got on the wing. 
You cross the ravine and ascend the hill on the other side. You 
find it is much stiffer work than it looked, requiring a good head 
and a careful use of your feet. At last you get to the destined 
spot below bird number one, and as close as you can conveniently 
get thereto—it may be twenty yards or it may be a hundred or 
more. You have a most insecure footing, and you are not quite 
sure that your gun going off will not remove you from it; but 
you mean to have a shot at that Cheer, though you perish in the 
attempt. The shikaree climbs up still higher to flush the bird 
with the spaniels at his heels. After a good deal of beating of 
bushes and inciting of the dogs, a great fluttering is heard over- 
head, but it may be out of sight. The next moment a mighty 
rush as of some archangel ina hurry; you spin round, let off 
your gun, and upset yourself, all in the twinkling of an eye; and 
if you get that bird it is probably, as Mr. Hume remarks, not the 
first time you have shot Cheer. If you do not get him, he is 
again marked down, probably on some lower slope of the same 
hill, where you may with perfect confidence leave him till you 
have looked up, by a similar process to that first described, the 
other birds originally flushed. It is curious how close these birds 
will sit when put up once or twice. You may leave them half an 
