A Breath from the Veldt 53 



and thicker set than either of the khoorhans last referred to ; and on the table they 

 are no less palatable than any other of their species, except the Stanley bustard, 

 whose merits on this score are simply supreme. To get at the bird you must 

 proceed warily, and be prepared to fire long shots, armed with a first-class gun 

 and best English -loaded wild-fowl cartridges. Then shall you have your 

 reward ; for, unlike other bustards, he is so easy to shoot when on the wing 

 and fairly within range, that to miss him would be unpardonable in anybody 

 calling himself a sportsman. With care therefore a troop can be gradually 

 flushed, and the majority brought to bag. 



But the finest game-bird in the country, or perhaps anywhere else, is the 

 Kori bustard {Otis Kori), adult males weighing from 30 lbs. to 40 lbs. apiece. 

 Its range is said to extend from the Karroo country (where I saw it, three 

 times, myself) to the Zambesi ; but, so far as I could learn, the birds are not 

 anywhere abundant, and are generally met with only in pairs. 



The Stanley bustard (Oth caffrd) is a much commoner sort, and is found 

 everywhere throughout the Southern Transvaal and Orange Free State, either 

 singly, in pairs, or in parties of from four to eight. Messrs. Eglinton and 

 Nicholls seem to imply that it is rarely met with in the Transvaal ; but four 

 days after leaving Johannesburg I saw it daily until we passed through the 

 high veldt into the bush country. The hilly uplands of the grass plateaux 

 are its favourite resort. In size it rivals the capercailzie, and as a table-bird 

 it has no superior in South Africa, the flesh being extremely delicate and 

 tender, especially in locust years, when its charms are heightened by abundant 

 fat. Though a remarkably silent bird, it sometimes gives vent to a low trump 

 as it rises, not unlike the first part of the Vaal khoorhan's note. The male, 

 however, is said to " boom " early in the spring mornings, like other large 

 bustards when on amorous ends intent. To get within range of them is no 

 easy task, for to birds with thin long legs and necks the rolling prairies offer 

 few obstacles to their vision, and the sight of a man on horseback is enough to 

 set them off at once. Harried too, as they are, by every travelling Dutchman 

 who carries a rifle, they take all the care they can to let no man come between 

 the wind and their nobility. 



But no more of these bustards at present. In the language of the legendary 

 Dutchman, " Too moch is enauf." Later on I shall have something to say 

 of what I consider a new species that I found some fifty miles north of 

 Pietersburg in the Transvaal. Meanwhile I notice briefly, as rarely met with 

 south of Mashonaland, four other varieties, viz. the Senegal khoorhan {Otis 



