Contrihutions to the Omitliology of India, ^c. 143 



liim at about 55 yards ; the first though similarly approached, 

 dived at about 80 yards ; we pulled as hard as possil)le after 

 him, and he showed ag-ain about 70 yards off; my gun, a very 

 heavy, long barrelled dovible, 10 bore, with No. 2 green car- 

 tridge, was at my shoulder, full cock; for a wonder the bird 

 appeared exactly where I expected, the very second the crown 

 of his head showed on the surface, I pulled the trigger, and yet 

 I was too late ; the shot only struck the troubled water where 

 he had disappeai-ed. 



Then we pulled an incredible time, full five minutes I am 

 sure, before he again appeared, and then he turned up some 100 

 yards ofi*, on the port bow. I instantly fired, not with any pros- 

 pect of touching him, but to make him dive and so fatigue him, 

 "We were within 70 yards of him when he next rose, and he was 

 not suffered to keep his head one second above water; next time 

 I still looking out in front, he popped his head up close behind 

 the boat, and before I could turn to fire (one has to be judgmati- 

 cal in kittle crafts like these) he was off. We '' reversed the 

 engines," and went back on our track as hard as we could go, 

 but when he rose, he was a good hundred yards a head ; he got 

 the contents of a barrel sent after him promptly, and the men 

 making a tremendous spurt on which he had not calculated, 

 he rose next time at about 50 yards, and quick as he was, 

 could not quite escape the shot. Next time he was a little fur- 

 ther, but he did not dive so quickly, and I distinctly saw the 

 shot catch him ; we pulled up sharply, but he had turned under 

 water, and when he next showed up, he was more than 100 

 yards astern. I fired as usual, hut he didn't dive. This was a 

 good sign and showed he was at least a little out of breath ; 

 when we were about 70 yards off, he again dived, and came up 

 about 30 yards off us broad on the quarter, but showed himself 

 only for one second, being out of sight again before the shot 

 could reach him ; hard as the men pulled (we had had to turn 

 the boat) he was sixty yards at least a head of us when he rose, 

 but this time he was unable to get under again quick enough, 

 and one shot caught him in the neck, and there he floated dead 

 at last. I was greatly delighted, but yet it gave one a kind of 

 pang to see his lovely white satin breast upturned, rising and 

 sinking slowly in the bright sunlight on the soft green swells ; 

 I almost wished I had not been quite so successful or rather 

 what I exactly wished was, that I could have got my specimen, 

 and he remained alive and jolly all the same. Two of the birds 

 procitred to-day, fell to the first shot, most of the rest entailed long 

 chases ; one took fourteen shots to bring him to bag, two we lost 

 after much labour, when certainly partly tired out, owing to their 



