name "solitary" would be highly applicable.

Quail are numerous and in all respects resemble those found in this
country. They are chiefly prized by the Chinese for their pugilistic
qualities, for after being caught and having had their wings clipped
they are disposed of to various purchasers, who take them to miniature
cock-pits and there back them to fight the birds of other gamblers for
considerable sums, the combats being fierce and often deadly.

The hares are wretched little animals, all bones and felt, and not
larger than the English rabbit. They usually lie in the open, though
often found in graves and in holes in the rocks, from which I have
thought that they might be the "coney" mentioned in Scripture.

Bustards, or wild turkeys, are found at certain periods all over
China. They are very shy, always settle on wide plains, and are
extremely difficult of approach--a shot being only obtainable after
long and careful stalking.

Although tigers are occasionally to be found in most of the southern
provinces, there are but few places easily accessible to Europeans
where they exist in any number, and not having been in one of these
favoured spots I have had no opportunity to try my hand at this
exciting sport, but a friend of mine, who has earned considerable fame
at it, and who keeps a row of grinning tiger skulls on his
drawing-room mantelpiece as mementoes of successful hunts, described
to me how operations are conducted.

At Amoy, which is probably the best known of these districts, when
natives from the surrounding country bring word into the settlement
that a tiger has been seen, preparations for the hunt are quickly
completed, and a party of sportsmen repairs to the scene of action.

The country being exceedingly rocky, the tigers make their lairs in
caves and rocks, approached by long tunnels or holes just large enough
to admit the beasts, so that to get them out is both difficult and
dangerous.

Having traced spore to the entrance of one of these tunnels, my friend
crawled in first with his rifle, immediately after him coming a native
shikarri, who thrust forward over my friend's back a long bamboo
bearing at the end a lighted torch. Next followed three more
shikarries, holding long spears, which they similarly thrust in
advance, so that the attacking force consisted of a torch, three
spears, the Englishman with his rifle and four shikarries, in which
order they slowly crept along the passage, the si