CHAPTEK XXII 
BIG GAME AND ITS BIRD-PBOTECTORS 
AVe are apt to consider a task in hand as more 
difficult than a former object already achieved. Thus in 
Africa the stalker, crawling over an adamant veld, all 
but devoid of cover or “ advantage,” may recall with 
envy—recall as easy by comparison—the approach to big 
game on the rugged highlands or sheltering rock-ridges 
of Europe. He may even sigh for the soft sphagnum 
through which in Scotland the deer-stalker worms his 
final advance ; yet, at the time, the latter cannot be said 
really to enjoy the sensation of moss-water penetrating 
to his chest. 
But in Africa—and especially in the South, under 
the Tropic of Capricorn, to which regions these remarks 
more particularly refer—there is a specialised difficulty 
attending the stalker that is unknown in Europe. That 
difficulty springs from the habits of certain birds, that 
make it their business to warn game of the presence of 
danger. 
True, in Scotland and in Norway alike, the untimely 
flight of grouse, or a white hare skipping uphill, may, 
and often does, give a clue to otherwise unsuspecting 
game. But that is not the specialised difficulty above 
mentioned. That is merely incidental, and forms an 
everyday risk of the still-hunter the world over. In 
Africa that risk is fully as pronounced as elsewhere ; for 
here the ubiquitous francolin and guinea-fowl, the spur¬ 
wing and various other plovers (with sundry mammals), 
each and all form extraneous sources of danger to the 
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