A SPORTING SAUNTER. 141 



as he emerges from a bush, I secure him with the 

 first barrel. This is a prize of value, and after 

 examination and admiration, is tenderly bestowed 

 in an inner pocket. The bush lory^ — Le Coucouron 

 Narina of Le Vaillant, who named it after the fair 

 Gonaqua Hottentot, Narina, of whom he writes so 

 gushingly — ^with its vivid green back, grey wings, 

 delicately pencilled in white, carmine breast, and 

 green throat, is a curious and a notable bird. 

 Having bagged the lory, I hasten on, and in 

 another half-mile I turn an abrupt corner, or hoek 

 as the Boers call it, of the kloof, and closely and 

 cautiously scanning the cliff sides, I set eyes upon 

 three klipspringers — literally, rock jumpers — standing 

 upon a ledge half-way up the mountain-side. The 

 klipspringer may be styled the chamois of South 

 Africa, and is one of the handsomest, most 

 characteristic, and shyest of the antelopes of the 

 country. One of the trio is but half- grown, and 

 in size about equals a smallish lamb. For ten 

 minutes, hidden in the bushes, I watch the beautiful, 

 sturdy little creatures, leaping here and there, from 

 rock to rock, and ledge to ledge, feeding as they 

 go. They are not very far away — although out of 

 range of my shot gun — and I can plainly distinguish 

 the rich olive brown of their coats, and the glint of 

 the sun upon the short straight horns, sharp as 

 poignards, of the full-grown ram. 



A Kaffir hunter of ours saw near this very spot 

 a singular scene. Here is his story: — " I had been 

 hunting all the morning, and at last came upon two 

 klipspringers, on the mountain-side, perched upon 

 a jutting-out rock. Just as I was about to creep 

 closer for my shot, I noticed another hunter, keener 



