BIG DAYS WITH BUSTARDS SANTO DOMINGO. 



53 



and lowered neck. The distance is great — near 100 yards 

 — but mould-shot and cold-drawn steel barrels have done 

 it before, and will do it again : back to earth, which, he had 

 barely quitted, returns the stricken monarch of the plain, 

 blood staining his snowy breast, and one great pinion hang- 

 ing useless by his side. 



The seven survivors wing away straight towards the 

 point where the other gun lies hidden in the dry drain- 

 head. Mark ! Now the leading barbon checks his flight as 

 he sees the flash of barrels beneath : but it is all too late, 

 and down he, too, comes with a mighty crash, to earth. A 

 third, offering only a " stern shot," continues a laboured 

 flight, his pinion-feathers sticking out at sixes and sevens, 

 and soon pitches on the verge of a marshy hollow where 

 storks are dotted about in search of frogs. It was an awk- 

 ward place, and necessitated moving him again: indeed, 

 this bird gave no small trouble to secure. The sun had 

 already set, and night drew on apace, ere the final shot, 

 ringing out amidst gathering gloom, told that he, too, had 

 been added to the spoils of that glorious afternoon. 



W^^IW* 



