156 FOREST CREATURES. 



there is a violent beating of wings as tliey bound 

 upward in their strife a few feet from the groTind. If 

 the haze would but disperse that you might get a shot ! 

 When suddenly from one of the huts where your com- 

 rade is stationed comes the report of a gun, which tells 

 you that yonder is less mist than here, or that the 

 birds being nearer enabled him to fire. But now you 

 too are able to see something, and about 150 yards off 

 there is a black cock in the grass. To the right is 

 another, and now from behind a hillock a third 

 emerges. What can they be about ? With outstretched 

 neck they move creepingly onward, with a sort of 

 would-be gravity, and then stand still in the same 

 position as before, looking as ridiculous as possible. 

 But presently they begin dancing up in the air, and 

 turning round like a turkey-cock, the tail-feathers 

 erect and outspread. Up they jump again a foot or 

 two, clucking and gobbling the while ; and then they 

 will suddenly resume their old posture, and, poking out 

 their neck to its fullest stretch, move mincingly for- 

 wards and with affected gait. But they approach each 

 other now, and a fight ensues, and the weaker is driven 

 away. 



They are still pretty far, but a rifle bullet may hit 

 one still. Your sights are fine — necessarily fine — 

 and it is not day yet ; however you try, and the sharp 

 crack of the explosion rings through the neighbouring 



