SHOOTING IN CHINA. 313 



A dollar made him perfectly happy, and quite 

 willing to be again peppered. 



There was an old Chinaman at Canton who regu- 

 larly lived by his gun, a long, single-barrelled imple- 

 ment of perfectly unknown make. He shot his snipe 

 from the hip, and not from the shoulder. Of course, 

 where they were so plentiful, he could afford to pick 

 his bird. Still, it showed how practice and a good eye 

 could knock over these birds in a very unusual 

 manner. This thorough old sportsman very often 

 bagged a woodcock, a rare bird in these parts of China, 

 and although he was offered a fabulous price if he 

 would take an Englishman to the place, he stuck to his 

 occasional woodcock in preference to a small fortune. 

 I admired him for it. I now and then picked up one 

 of these birds in some of the out-of-the-way places I 

 visited when in search of pirates, but the occurrence 

 was so rare it deserved to be noted. Pheasants in one 

 or two places were not uncommon. Quail were every- 

 where. The little orange-legged partridge is very 

 common, and is a most quarrelsome, pugnacious bird. 

 Never but once have I flushed two together ; they ap- 

 pear always alone, whether male or female. Before rain 

 they get on the open hillocks or big blocks of stones, 

 and utter their curious wild cry, which sounds most 



