20 THE HOUBARA. 



as do the little ones. Generally, however, if the time be be- 

 tween 10 and 4, and the day bright and warm, as your spiral 

 diminishes the birds disappear suddenly. They have squatted. 

 Still you go on round and round, closing in in each lap, and strain- 

 ing your eyes, usually in vain, to discover their whereabouts ; 

 suddenly, perhaps from under the very feet of the camel, up 

 flutters one of the birds, and after a few strides, rises, to fall 

 dead a few yards further on, as they are easy to hit and easy 

 to kill. Of course, I suppose a trained camel to be used, other- 

 wise, what with flies, keeping up a perpetual twitching of every 

 part of the beast's head, neck and body, and its natural suspi- 

 cions that you and your gun are up to no good, you will 

 find it by no means difficult to miss even a Houbara, especially 

 if you do not remember always so to slew your camel round 

 as to have the bird well on your left side. 



At the first shot, all the Houbara that are at all close usually 

 rise, but after shooting a brace right and left, and having them 

 picked up and slung, I have known a third blunder up from 

 within a few yards. 



Often, especially when you are out alone, and after breaking 

 up a large flock (which it is always best to do), are working a 

 single bird, you close in and in until you reach the very bush 

 by which you last saw it, and yet can find no trace of it. You 

 pull up, as this generally starts the bird, but sometimes even 

 then nothing is to be seen. The way they will squat at times 

 on an absolutely bare patch of sand is astonishing ; their plu- 

 mage harmonizes perfectly with the soil, and you will have a 

 bird rise suddenly, apparently out of the earth, within five yards 

 of you, from a spot where there is not a blade of cover, and on 

 which your eyes have perhaps been fixed for some seconds. 

 This is especially the case about mid-day, when the sun is 

 nearly vertical and no shadow is thrown by the squatting bird. 

 Sometimes they try another plan ; they get behind a single 

 bush, and, as you circle round, they do the same, always keeping 

 the bush between themselves and the sportsman ; here, unless 

 the sun is quite vertical, their shadow projected on the ground, 

 apart from that of the bush, is sure, at certain positions in the 

 circle, to betray them, and a shot through the bush brings them 

 to bag. 



In some parts of the country, the Houbara greatly affect 

 fields of mustard and other crops yielding the oil-seeds of 

 commerce, of which there is a vast variety, known by half a 

 dozen different names, in almost every province. 



When these fields are well grown, and are, say, a little higher 

 than the bird itself stands, exceptionally good sport may at 

 times be obtained. 



They cannot run here, the growth is too dense, and a line 

 of guns and beaters, sweeping a large field of this kind into 

 which a flock has been marked, will often account for the whole 



